National

Suspend 5 students, remove hall provost: HC to IU authority

The High Court (HC) has directed the authority of Islami University (IU) in Kushtia to suspend five female students as per the probe report for torturing and humiliating a female student. 

A HC bench of Justice JBM Hasan and Raziq Al Jalil on Wednesday passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed by lawyer Gazi Md Mohsin. 

The campus authority was also ordered to remove the provost of Deshratna Sheikh Hasina Hall Dr Shamsul Alam and increase CCTV monitoring at all residential halls of the university. 

Read more: Student torture: IU submits probe report

The five students are IU Chhatra League Vice President Sanjida Chowdhury Antora (Statistics Department), BCL activist Tabassum Islam (Finance and Banking Department) Israt Jahan Meem (Law Department), Halima Khatun Urmi (Fine Arts Department) and Muabia Jahan (Finance and Banking Department). 

All except Antora are students of the 2020-21 academic session and as per HC orders none of them will be allowed to participate in any academic activities or have access to university premises.

The court also directed the authority to ensure that the victim Fulpori Khatun gets accommodation at her desired hall within the next three days.

Kushtia, Pabna Police Superintendents and university authority were asked to ensure safety for the victim and eyewitnesses of the torture incident. 

Read more: Writ seeks steps against those involved in IU student torture

The court fixed May 8 for next hearing and directed IU Vice Chancellor and Registrar to submit a report before it in this regard on that day.  

It is mentionable that, Fulpori Khatun, a first year student of Finance and Banking Department of IU, was tortured and humiliated at Deshratna Sheikh Hasina Hall from 11:30pm pm on February 11 to 3 am on February 12.

Later, she accused BCL IU unit Vice President Antora, her associate Tabassum and several others of physically torturing her.