Suspension of bomb-throwing CU students

THE report that the Chittagong University (CU) authority has suspended five Shibir members for allegedly carrying out a bomb attack last month on a bus carrying CU teachers has drawn our notice. Given the gravity of the crime that caused physical injury to 15 CU teachers, the culprits who were behind it cannot deserve leniency from any punishment-awarding authority.  It may be noted that  two of the CU students so 'suspended,' who are now in jail, did already confess to a Chittagong court on September 22 that they along with the rest three had actually hurled crude bombs at a teachers' bus a week before. That leaves no doubt about their degree of culpability in the crime.

Seemingly, CU syndicate has chosen to be rather soft towards those dangerous elements involved in bomb-throwing during a violent strike on the CU campus enforced by Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami. One wonders, why those students have simply been suspended and not expelled or rusticated from the university? Since criminal procedure has already been instituted against them in the court of law, there should be no room for hesitancy in comprehending the dreadfulness of their crime and the punishment it warrants.

The CU authority, it is hoped, would take the matter with due seriousness and set an example in dealing with the errant CU students as an effective deterrent against any future act of violence of this kind by any student in the future.