Teachers of a residential school in Tangail have reportedly tied up and beaten 11 students for smoking and vandalizing school property.
According to students and parents, the teachers of Biswas Betka Srishti Residntial School in Tangail town accosted the students, who are in class nine, for smoking and informed their parents.
Later that night the students broke a CCTV camera inside the dorm and sprayed around a fire extinguisher. The resident teacher Mizan, alarmed by the fog, called other teachers in.
The teachers then tied up and gagged 11 students, and beat them with cricket stumps, students alleged.
On Saturday morning their parents were called in and the students were handed over.
On the same night, the other residential students went on a rampage in the dorm, vandalizing the furniture, office equipment, computers, glass utensils and windows. People in the neighbourhood were alarmed by the sounds and called the police.
Police arrived on the scene and brought the situation under control.
Student Al Amin’s mother Joly Akhter said she was called in by a teacher on Saturday morning.
When her son was brought to her after a two-hour wait, she found him bleeding from the leg.
“I took him to a doctor. There, he told me that he was beaten all the way from the waist down and then left on the floor all night,” she said.
Abdullah Al Jubair’s father Moniruzzaman said the students were beaten brutally.
He demanded action against the teachers.
Ismail Hossain, an official with the school, said class nine students were caught by resident teacher Mizan while smoking.
“They were questioned in the office room and their parents were informed,” he said.
“These students later attacked Mizan. Then on Saturday morning all the students, led by some from class 10, vandalized the school,” he alleged.
The school’s Principal Liakat Ali Liton said some students were ‘slightly punished’ for smoking.
“The students got angry over that and vandalized the school,” he said.
Tangail Model police station OC Sayedur Rahman said police intervened as the students were vandalizing the school.
He said police had learned of the beating of students, but said none of the parents had launched a complaint.
