BANGLADESH GIRL BURNT TO DEATH
Student set on fire on principal’s order after she reported him for sexual harassment
ASCHOOLGIRL was burned to death in Bangladesh on the orders of her head teacher after she reported him for sexually harassing her, police said yesterday.
The death of Nusrat Jahan Rafi, 19, last week sparked protests across the country, with the prime minister promising to prosecute all those involved.
Nusrat was lured to the rooftop of the Islamic seminary she attended, where her attackers asked her to withdraw the sexual harassment complaint she had filed with police.
When she refused, she was doused in kerosene and set on fire.
Police said one of the 17 people arrested in connection with her death had accused the school’s principal of ordering the attack.
The teacher “told them to put pressure on Nusrat to withdraw the case or kill her if she refused”, senior police superintendent
Mohammad Iqbal, who is leading the investigation, said.
Nusrat had gone to police last month to report the sexual harassment, and a leaked video shows the local police station chief registering her complaint but dismissing it as “not a big deal”.
Iqbal said at least five of those under arrest, including three of Rafi’s classmates, had tied her up with a scarf before setting her on fire.
“The plan was to pass the incident off as a suicide. But it fell through after Nusrat managed to come downstairs while on fire because the scarf burnt and freed her hands and feet,” he said.
Nusrat suffered burns to 80 per cent of her body and died in hospital on April 10.
But she recorded a video before her death, repeating her allegations against the principal.
“The teacher touched me, I will fight this crime till my last breath,” she said. She also identified some of her attackers.
Nusrat’s brother, Mahmudul Hasan Noman, said people close to the principal had also put pressure on the family to withdraw the case against him.
“They told us that it was a conspiracy against him and that it was fabricated,” he said.
The case has caused outrage in Bangladesh, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina vowing that “none of the culprits will be spared legal action”.