The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has suspended lecturer Dr Md Raihan Shareef of Shaheed Monsur Ali Medical College Hospital in Sirajganj following his arrest after a gun he brought to class fired and injured a student.

The notice regarding his temporary suspension was issued on Wednesday.

The suspension is due to his arrest on criminal charges, the notice said. However, as per the rules, the lecturer will continue to get his subsistence allowance during the term of the suspension.

On Monday, a student named Arafat Amin Tomal – a third-year student of the college’s MBBS programme – was shot in the leg as Shareef was showing off a pistol during an oral exam.

Afterwards, students detained the lecturer and launched a protest, stirring tensions on campus.

After receiving a report on the incident, police went to the scene, took Shareef into custody and seized his firearm. The Detective Branch later recovered several other weapons, including a foreign pistol and ammunition, in his possession.

It was later learned that the pistol is illegal.

A lecturer in the Department of Community Medicine, Shareef is the son of former Sirajganj Government College Professor Abdur Razzak and lived in the town’s Dattabari Moholla.

Two cases have been filed against Shareef. The first was filed by Tomal’s father Abdullah Al Amin. Four of Tomal’s classmates have been named as witnesses.

DB police filed another case against Shareef over his possession of an illegal firearm.

Sirajganj Superintendent of Police Arifur Rahman Mandal said that allegations of sexual harassment of students and taking drugs on the college campus had also been made against Shareef.

They will all be investigated, he said.