The authorities of Jahangirnagar University have temporarily suspended 12 second-year students from the Department of History over allegations of ragging first-year students of the same department.
The decision was announced in an office order signed by Acting Registrar ABM Azizur Rahman at around 11:45 pm on Saturday.
According to the order, several students of the department’s 54th batch allegedly ragged members of the 55th batch at the university’s School and College ground between 11:00 pm and 2:00 am on 3 July.
The first-year students were reportedly subjected to verbal abuse, forced to hold their ears as punishment, and physically and mentally harassed under the pretext of being taught “manners.”
The office order said the incident constituted a clear violation of Section 5(e) of the Jahangirnagar University Students’ Discipline Ordinance, 2018, which prohibits teasing, ragging and other abusive acts in university halls, departments and across the campus. Following the allegations, the university decided to suspend the accused students under Section 4(1)(b) of the ordinance pending further proceedings.
The suspended students are Nasim Uddin Majumder of Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad Hall; Mahfuzur Rahman of Al-Beruni Hall; Abdullah Mahdi and Shubhashish Roy of Shaheed Rafiq-Jobbar Hall; Abu Abtahi Anik, Raihan Khan and Naimul Hasan of Nawab Salimullah Hall; Isfak Hadi of AFM Kamaluddin Hall; Naim Ahmed and Kartik Chandra Roy of Shaheed Salam-Barkat Hall; and Kazi Shah Jamshed Alam Nabil and Saifullah Mansur Anan of Maulana Bhashani Hall.
The incident came to light after members of the 54th batch allegedly summoned first-year students to the university’s School and College ground on Friday night. According to the victims, they were forced to hold their ears, subjected to abusive language, and physically and mentally harassed under the guise of teaching them the department’s dress code and formal conduct.
The victims said one of the first-year students managed to alert Jahangirnagar University Central Students’ Union Executive Member Mohammad Ali Chishti during the ragging session. A university proctorial team and members of JUCSU anti-ragging cell then rushed to the scene, verified the allegations, and caught the accused students in the act before taking them to the university’s security office.
The university authorities recorded video statements and written confessions from the accused students before deciding to suspend them.