A high school headmaster has been suspended following a public outrage over three female students of Class VIII being beaten mercilessly in Birganj upazila of Dinajpur today.

Sahidul Haque, headmaster of Golapganj High School in Birganj upazila of Dinajpur, beat Class VIII students Momotaj Parvin Borsha, 14, Shanta Islam, 13, and Tanjila Akter, 14, after they failed to answer his questions during the class today, witnesses told our Dinajpur correspondent.

The three students were later hospitalized at Upazila Health Complex in Birganj. They were severely injured, said Dr. Nurul Aziz, medical officer at the health complex.

Sahidul beat Momotaj on her legs after she failed to answer the question he asked her during the science class. She was then asked to kneel down outside the class, and then she was again called in the class room. But she could hardly walk due to the pain, and the teacher started beating her again. When her friends Shanta and Tanjila protested against it, the teacher started beating them up as well, said Mamun, a student in the same class.

Later, other friends of the victims called their parents to school who then took them to the health complex.  

Hearing about the incident nearly a thousand villagers from the nearby villages gathered there and surrounded the school beginning around 12.00pm in protest of the incident, demanding removal of the teacher.

Around 4.30pm, Russell Monjur, UNO of Birganj and Jahangir Alam, officer-in-charge of Birganj Police Station took Sahidul to the police station, assuring the locals that he would be suspended.

'We took him to police station for his safety', OC Jahangir Alam told The Daily Star.

No case has been filed yet in this regard, the police official added.

Shudhansu Shekhar, President of the school's managing committee, confirmed that the teacher has been suspended. 

A 5-member team led by Shudhansu Shekhar has been formed to investigate the incident.