KUSHITA. Sept 8: At least 70 students of the Islamic University were Injured when police lathicharged them during their demonstration on the Kushtia-Jhenidah highway this afternoon.

Twenty Injured students, seven of them In critical conditions, were admitted to the Kushtia General Hospital.

According to witnesses, the students were trying to enforce a blockade on the highway near the university around noon protesting the withdrawal of a compulsory subject Islamic Studies" from the first year syllabus.

To disperse the demonstrators and to clear the highway for the movement of vehicles, the police resorted to lathl-chargc. In retaliation, the students started pelting stones and brickbats at the police.

Ths police chased the students up to the Islamic University premises. The situation eventually calmed down.

But later, the angry students damaged the windowpanes of the Vice Chancellor's office and damaged two university vehicles.

The students have also called a strike in Kushtia and Jhenidah towns on Saturday protesting the alleged police attack.

Vice Chancellor Abdul Hamid in the evening called an emergency meeting of the university Syndicate with the Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police of Kushtia and Jhenidah to review the situation.