Police fire expired tear gas shells at quota-reform protesters

Police attracted ridicule from netizens on Monday, after it emerged that many of the tear gas shells used during clashes with quota-reform protesters were expired. In an image of one of the shells uploaded by a teacher of the Tori School at Jahangirnagar University, it is clearly visible that the tear gas canister expired in July last year. The woman who uploaded post told the Dhaka Tribune that she retrieved the shell from the Dairy Gate area of JU in the afternoon. Many protesters at JU and Dhaka University (DU) said though the canisters dispersed the gas, it had little effect on those in the vicinity. However, other protesters on the Nilkhet side of the DU campus said the tear gas canisters used in that area were fully functional. Despite repeated attempts to contact them for comment, Shahbagh police station OC Abul Hasan, Deputy Commissioner (Ramna Division) Maruf Hossain Sarder, and DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia could not be reached by phone.