Police on Friday arrested the prime accused and another person for spreading rumours that a teacher beat some students for not “wearing hijab” at a school in Naogaon.
The rumour spread on social media led to a mob vandalising school property.
The arrestees have been identified as QM Sayeed Tito, 60, a resident of Upazila Sadar and Kazi Samshuzzoha Milon, 45, of Kushar Center area.
The arrestees are among about 20-28 people against whom the teacher Amodini Pal filed a case for falsely implicating her in the incident.
Amodini Pal, assistant headmistress of Daul Barbakpur High School in Naogaon’s Mohadevpur filed a case on April 9 against these people, including including the headmaster of the school Dharani Kant Barman, president of the school managing committee Mahmudul Hasan Sumon and Salauddin Ahmed, a resident of Gaherpur village in Porsha upazila.
Later, police conducted a special drive and arrested the two from Librarypatti and Kushar Center areas of the upazila around 3:30 am on Friday, siad Azam Uddin Mahmud, officer-in-Charge (OC) of Mahadevpur Police Station.
“We are trying to nab the other accused”, he added.
“On 7 April, the school was attacked following the rumour. Many people from the villages around the school attacked and vandalised property of the school”.
Earlier, on 6 April, Amodini Pal, assistant headmistress of the school allegedly beat 16-18 female students in the 8th, 9th and 10th grades of the school “for not wearing school uniform”. Later, the incident was twisted into a “hijab” row and went viral on social media.
On Saturday, a show-cause notice was served to the accused teacher ordered by the Upazila Secondary Education Officer.
Upazila administration formed a three-member committee to investigate the incident.
The committee submitted its report to Mahadevpur Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Mizanur Rahman around 8pm on Monday.
The report said, ‘Two teachers beat some students of the school for not wearing school uniform. Among them, there were Hindu female students and male students too’.
However, the investigation report did not find anything that the students were beaten for wearing ‘hijab’.
Source: United News of Bangladesh