The authorities of Chittagong University (CU) yesterday suspended eight Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) activists of the dissolved university unit for two years for their involvement in two separate incidents.

Confirming the expulsion, CU Proctor Ali Asgar Chowdhury said the decision was taken at an emergency meeting of the Board of Residence Health and Disciplinary Committee of the university. CU Vice-Chancellor Prof Iftekhar Uddin Chowdhury presided over the meeting that took place at his office.

Of the eight, four BCL men -- Saidul Islam Said of public administration department, Lokman Hossain of economics, Kanak Saha Joy of the Institute of Modern Language and Linguistics and Mahfuzul Haque Lotas of dramatics department -- were suspended for vandalising the proctor office and for carrying out an attack on two on-duty journalists on February 20.

The remaining four were suspended for taking ransom from a student after abduction on February 22. They are Sabbir Hossain of management department, Yasin Arafat of botany, Iftekhar Uddin Riaz and Shafiqul Islam of modern language and linguistics institute.

All the suspended students were also served show cause notices asking why they would not be expelled from CU. They were also asked to send their replies in seven days, said Proctor Asgar, adding that the suspension had been effective from yesterday.

“They were suspended as we found their involvement in the incidents in the investigation,” he said, adding that police were also asked to take legal action against them according to the existing law of the country.