A group of alleged stalkers beat up eight students, including four girls, for protesting harassment of their classmate in Shariatpur yesterday.

The injured are class-VIII students of Binodpur Public High School and this year’s JSC examinees. They were admitted to Shariatpur Sadar Hospital.

The incident happened in Sadar upazila's Dewankandi village in the afternoon when the students were on their way home from their exam centre at Angaria High School.

The victims alleged that one Shamim Dewan of the same village had been stalking one of the female classmates on her way to the exam centre for the last one week.As the girl and her classmates were returning home in a battery-run easy bike yesterday, Shamim along with his five associates intercepted the vehicle and asked the girl to give her mobile phone number. As her classmates protested it, Shamim and his associates beat them up with sticks, they said. Later, locals rescued them.

The girl said she was travelling with her classmates as she was afraid of Shamim.

Babul Miah, headmaster of Binodpur Public High School, demanded exemplary punishment to the culprits. He also said a case would be filed against them.

Shariatpur Sadar Hospital's Resident Medical Officer Sumon Kumar said there were injury marks on the students' bodies. They were undergoing treatment and that they would get better in two to three days.

Palong Model Police Station's Officer-in-Charge Khalilur Rahman said filing of a case was underway. Drives were on to arrest the culprits, he added.