Two female students fall victim to ragging

A female student of Barishal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College has fallen sick after allegedly being victim of ragging. The student and her roommate were allegedly taken to a room of a hall twice at the dead of night. The victim was kept standing for hours, reviled and threatened by the accused students.

Her mobile phone has been searched as well. Facing the torture, the student fell unconscious at one point. Later she was admitted to Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital.

This incident of torture took place at room no. 606 of the women’s hall on Wednesday night. Dental 73rd batch student Fahmida Rawshan alias Prova and 50th batch student Neelima Hosssain alias Jui led the incident of ragging.

Prova and Jui identify themselves as Chhatra League leaders but the ruling party student wing doesn't have a committee in the medical college.

Meanwhile, the academic council of the medical college today took statements of the victim student. As journalists from several television channels had gone there to record statements of the victim and her mother at that time, some teachers harassed the journalists.

A camera of Channel 24 was vandalised at that time.

The victim alleged she and her roommate were being harassed by some students identifying themselves as BCL leaders for quite some time. The victim and her roommate were summoned to room no. 606 at around 11:00pm on Wednesday where they face hours of mental torture.

Vice principal of the college Nazimul Haque was in charge of investigating the incident. He told Prothom Alo today, “An untoward incident happened with journalists. We are trying to solve it.”

About torturing a student, he said, “It was a petty incident, not something big. But we’re looking into the incident and trying to solve it. I’m busy now; I’d talk to you later.”

The victim said she and her roommate have been subjected to ragging for quite some time. Frightened, they requested one of the accused not to torture them through a classmate of her.

This request left the accused further infuriated and they summoned the victims to room No. 606 of the hall at around 11:00pm on Wednesday. The victims were asked why they ‘complained’ to the classmate of the accused.

The mobile phones of the victims were searched during the ‘interrogation’. The students were allowed to go to their rooms after confinement for half an hour.

One of the victims was summoned to the room again at around 12 in the night as she informed the incident to the classmate of the harasser.

The victim said she fell sick in the face of mental torture for around two hours. She was not allowed to sit for the whole time and her mobile phone was searched again. The victim was sent to her room as she fell sick. She later lost consciousness and was admitted to the hospital.

The mother of the victim told Prothom Alo this afternoon that the hospital authorities took statements from her daughter and another student at around 12 in the noon. 

“Do you want treatment or justice? You will have to choose one of the options. Your educational life might get hampered if you seek justice," she quoted the college authorities as saying.

She also said, "We told the authorities that we want both. We were taken aback at the stance of the authorities in favour of the harassers.”

The victim’s mother alleged that the attackers were joking outside the room where the authorities were taking statements from the victim.

“We are frustrated at the behavior of the college authorities. I’m concerned about the safety of my daughter,” she added.

Accused Prova and Jui did not respond to calls and messages.