In a shocking incident reported from across the border, a 19-year-old Bangladeshi teenager Nusrat Jahan Rafi was burned to death after she filed a sexual harassment complaint against her madarsa headmaster. As per reports, on March 27, she had complained that the madarsa headmaster repeatedly called her in his office and repeatedly touched her inappropriately.
Thankfully, she managed to escape and went to a local police station to give her statement. Unfortunately, the policemen filmed her when she was retelling her traumatic experience which was later on leaked to local media. Following this, she started facing abuse and threats. While the police arrested the headmaster on March 27, things got worse for Nusrat as a mob led by two male ‘students’ and local politicians gathered on the street to demand the release of the headmaster.
Despite fearing for her life, Nusrat went to school on April 6, 11 days after the traumatic incident, to sit for her exams. A fellow female student asked Nusrat to accompany her on the roof, where four-five people, on directions of the principal who molested Nusrat, wearing burqa started beating her up and started pressurising her to withdraw the case against the madarsa headmaster. When she refused, she was set on fire by them. As per reports, they wanted to make it look like a suicide, but when Nusrat was rescued, they fled the scene.
According to the investigating officer, one of the killers was holding her head down with his hands and hence they weren’t able to pour kerosene there because of which her head was not burned. Nusrat recorded her statement on her brother’s phone while she was being taken to the hospital in an ambulance. “The teacher touched me. I will fight this crime till my last breath,” she had reportedly said.
Fifteen people, including a woman who allegedly poured kerosene over Nusrat have been arrested of which two men have already confessed to her killing. Both were studying at the same madarsa Nusrat studied at and were also leaders in the Bangladesh Chhatra League unit at the madarsa. Investigations have also revealed that they met the suspended headmaster, Sirajuddaula in the jail to receive instructions for Nusrat’s murder. One of the accused, Shahadat, who has confessed to the crime, said that he was eager to be part of the murder because she had refused his advances a few months prior.
