The authorities of Chittagong University (CU) on Thursday suspended two leaders of the university unit of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) for six months on account of beating a campus reporter of an online news portal two days ago.

The Board of Residence Health and Disciplinary Committee led by the university Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Shireen Akhter took the decision two days after the incident.

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CU Proctor Dr Mohammad Nurul Azim Sikdar confirmed the development, saying that the probe committee submitted their report on Wednesday night and the suspension order was taken on Thursday afternoon after a virtual meeting.

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. The second man is Arafat Raihan, deputy office secretary and a 2018-19 session student of Sociology department.

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

“We didn’t want such justice. It was done just to show people that the university administration is hostage to the criminals while the probe committee proved that the criminals are stronger than the university administration,” he said, warning that they will continue the movement unless their demands are met.

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Since the incident of beating, the campus journalists have been demanding permanent expulsion of the accused BCL men.

On June 19, Doust Mohammad, a campus correspondent of online news portal Dhaka State and member of CUJA, 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 some BCL men led by the duo beat Doust Mohammad, a Communication and Journalism department student of the CU.

He is now being treated at Chattogram Medical College Hospital.