DHAKA, July 27: Hundreds of security personnel ringed Bangladesh’s premier Dhaka University on Saturday as more than 6,000 students staged angry demonstrations demanding the resignation of the school head after a raid on a women’s dormitory.

Riot police backed by the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles ringed the university campus and blocked roads crossing the campus with barbed-wire fences.

The students, who are also demanding the withdrawal of cases against their classmates, torched an effigy of university vice chancellor Anwarullah Chowdhury and shouted: “We want him out before going back to classes.”

However, Chowdhury told the Manavzamin tabloid on Saturday that he would not resign.

Students also blindfolded the faces on two sculptures of students who fought in Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war against Pakistan, chanting: “They can’t bear to see the barbarous acts of the police.”

The turmoil at the university was sparked on Wednesday when, according to witnesses, male policemen entered a women’s dormitory at night and beat them.

Students said the raid came as they were demanding that three non-students allied with Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party be ousted from the dormitory.

At least 18 students were arrested in the raid and released on bond, but cases have been filed against them on charges of inciting the trouble.—AFP