A schoolgirl 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 19-year-old Nusrat Jahan Rafi last week sparked protests across the South Asian nation, with Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina promising to prosecute all those involved.
Rafi was lured to the rooftop of the Muslim 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.
One of the 17 people arrested in connection with her death had accused the school’s principal of ordering the attack, police said.
The teacher “told them to put pressure on Rafi to withdraw the case or kill her if she refused,” Senior Police Superintendent Mohammad Iqbal, who is leading the investigation, told reporters.
Rafi had late last month gone to the police 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.”
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, Iqbal said.
“The plan was to pass the incident off as a suicide, but it fell through after Rafi managed to come downstairs while on fire, because the scarf burnt and freed her hands and feet,” he said.
Rafi sustained burns to 80 percent of her body and died in a hospital on Wednesday last week.
However, 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 says in the video.
She also identified some of her attackers in the video.
The case has caused outrage in Bangladesh, with Hasina vowing that “none of the culprits will be spared legal action.”
Rights groups have said that the number of rape and sexual assault cases has increased in Bangladesh, because authorities have failed to prosecute attackers.
“The horrifying murder of a brave woman who sought justice shows how badly the Bangladesh government has failed victims of sexual assault,” Human Rights Watch South Asia director Meenakshi Ganguly said in a statement.
“Nusrat Jahan Rafi’s death highlights the need for the Bangladesh government to take survivors of sexual assault seriously and ensure that they can safely seek a legal remedy and be protected from retaliation,” she added.
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
RSS