Bruised and battered, the second-year undergraduate student of Rajshahi Government College could hardly speak as he was lying in his hospital bed.

Golam Mawla, a psychology student at the college, is in fact quite lucky to be alive. A number of activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League of the college had left him unconscious at the college ground after beating him up with a hammer on Wednesday morning. Right side of his swollen face - especially the cheek, the eye and the lips, clearly bore signs of the vicious attack he had undergone that day. After being taken to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital the same day, the doctors had to apply over a dozen stitches on his wounds.

Mawla's elder brother Alauddin was attending him at Neurosurgery ward of the hospital yesterday.

Observing Mawla's condition warily, Alauddin wondered if the injuries would affect his brother's memory and if he would become incapacitated to be unable to resume his studies.

"He is having nightmares about the attack," he told this correspondent.

RMCH Director Brig Gen Jamilur Rahman said they kept Mawla under close observation.

"His condition seems better. But it might take some time to recover," he added.

On the morning of the attack, Mawla was studying at the seminar room of the psychology department before his next class.

Jalal, a BCL activist of the college, asked him to come out of the room as he (Jalal) needed to have a talk with him, Mawla and eyewitnesses said.

Soon after Mawla complied, Jalal started slapping, punching and kicking him. He dragged him near the college pond where several other BCL activists were waiting.

All the BCL men then started beating him up. At one stage, Mawla fell on the ground after Jalal knocked him on the right side of his face with a hammer. He could feel striking of the hammer on his hands and legs before losing consciousness, said his brother Alauddin.

Rashik Dutta, joint secretary of BCL's college unit, also choked Mawla by stepping on his throat with his foot while he was lying on the ground, Alauddin said quoting Mawla.

"His attackers wanted to kill him," he said, adding that his brother has told him the names of the others who took part in the assault on him.

Prof Hobibur Rahman, the college principal, said no one dared to come to the rescue of the unconscious student for a while.

Later, a number of teachers from the nearby history department rescued and sent him to the hospital, he added.

A three-member committee, headed by Prof Partha Sarathi Biswas, chairman of psychology department, has probed the incident and they "identified the involved persons after talking to eyewitness and watching CCTV video footage," the principal told The Daily Star.

The college authorities will make a decision on Saturday based on the probe findings. “We will not tolerate such audacity [of the attackers]... We will file a case and cancel [their] studentship considering their crime," said ProfHobibur.

The college BCL's joint secretary, Rashik Dutta, could not be reached on his cell phone for his comments.

Nur Muhammad Siam, BCL president of the college unit, said they primarily found involved of some BCL men in the attack on Mawla as well and they have informed the matter to city unit BCL leaders.

Before taking any action, they were waiting for the findings of the investigation conducted by the college, he claimed.

He, however, said the incident was over a girl. "It wasn't a political attack, rather a personal one." Mawla and his friends said BCL activist Jalal had asked Mawla a few days ago not to talk to a girl (who is in Mawla's class) as Jalal has a love interest with her.