Two arrested over Naogaon’s Daul Barbakpur High School incident

Police on Friday arrested the prime accused and another person for spreading rumours that a teacher at Daul Barbakpur High School in Naogaon beat some students for not “wearing hijab”, reports UNB.

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 Sadar Upazila and Kazi Samshuzzoha Milon, 45, of Kushar Centre area.

The arrestees were among about 20-30 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 Mohadebpur filed a case on 9 April against the people, including the school’s head teacher Dharani Kant Barman, school managing committee president 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 Centre areas of the upazila at around 3:30am on Friday, siad Azam Uddin Mahmud, officer-in-charge of Mahadebpur police station.

“We are trying to arrest the other accused”, he added.

“On 7 April, the school was attacked following the rumour. Many people from the nearby villages attacked and vandalised property of the school,” he said.

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.

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 Mahadebpur Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Mizanur Rahman on Monday night.

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”.