CU suspends 2 BCL leaders for assault on a journalist

The Chittagong University (CU) authority on Thursday suspended two leaders of the university unit of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) for six months on the allegation of beating up a campus correspondent of an online news portal on Tuesday, reports UNB.

The Board of Residence Health and Disciplinary Committee, headed by vice-chancellor Prof Shireen Akhter, announced the punishment on Thursday.

Confirming their suspension, CU proctor Mohammad NUrul Azim Sikdar said the probe committee submitted the investigation report on Wednesday night and the decision was made in a virtual meeting of the committee Thursday.

He said that the suspension order will come into effect immediately and the two students will not be able to take part in any academic activities including examination during the stipulated period.

The suspended students are - Khaled Masud, law affairs secretary of the university unit of BCL and a 2017-18 session student of the law faculty and Arafat Raihan, deputy office secretary of BCL’s CU unit and a 2018-19 session student of the sociology department.

Imam Imu, general secretary of CU Journalists’ Association (CUJA), rejected the decision.

“We want justice. They did this to establish that the administration is hostage to a bunch of criminals. And the probe committee proved that those miscreants are stronger than the university administration,” he said.

The journalists have been demanding permanent expulsion of the accused BCL men.

Earlier, on 19 June, Doust Mohammad, a campus correspondent of online news portal Dhaka State and member of CUJA (Chittagong University Journalists’ Association), went to a stall to have a cup of tea at the rail station on the campus.

He wanted to pick up a vacant chair from the stall to sit while the suspended BCL men barred him from doing this.

An altercation broke out between them over the matter. At one stage, the BCL activists there, led by the two accused, beat up Doust Mohammad.

The victim is undergoing treatment at the Chattogram Medical College Hospital at the moment.