Jahangirnagar University suspends 8 students for sexually harassing female co-student

Jahangirnagar University has suspended eight students for sexually harassing a female co-student during Bengali New Year celebrations.

The authorities have not named the suspended students since investigations were ongoing.

The university took the step following an executive order by Vice-Chancellor Professor Farzana Islam, Pro-VC Abul Hossain said on Friday.

“We are not naming the victim and the suspended students for the sake of the investigation,” he said.

The victim filed a written compliant over the incident.

The next decision will be taken in a meeting of the university’s sexual harassment complaint cell on Saturday, the pro-VC said.

The victim alleged that she and another female student were assaulted at the Chourangi intersection on Tuesday evening during the Pahela Baishakh festival.

She identified the assaulters as members of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the ruling Awami League’s student affiliate.

She said they were returning to the residential hall after a programme of her department at the Botanical Garden.

Five students of Shaheed Salam-Barkat Hall stopped them at the Chourangi intersection, she said.

They tried to take her and the friend to a bush, she alleged.

Her friend said one of the assaulters pulled the saree the other female student wore.

They left when the victims shouted out for help.

On Thursday, the BCL expelled the five accused for the “sake of neutral investigation”.

They are – the university BCL working committee member and 42nd batch journalism student Nishat Imtiaz, Shaheed Salam-Barkat Hall unit publicity secretary and 42nd batch chemistry student Nafis Imtiaz, anthropology student Abdur Rahman Ifti, geology student ‘Rakib’, and history’s Nurul Kabir.

All of them are residents of Shaheed Salam-Barkat Hall and are known to be followers of BCL’s JU unit General Secretary Rajib Ahmed, who joined those demanding “exemplary punishment” for the accused.

Ahmed said the accused students left the hall on Thursday.

Teachers and students of the university have condemned the incident.