Bangladesh ‘girl burned to death on teacher’s order’

The death of 19-year-old Nusrat Jahan Rafi last week sparked protests across the South Asian nation, with the prime minister promising to prosecute all those involved.Rafi was lured to the rooftop of the 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 yesterday that one of the 18 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 Rafi to withdraw the case or kill her if she refused”, senior police superintendent Mohammed Iqbal, who is leading the investigation, said.Rafi had gone to police in late March 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 Rafi managed to come downstairs while on fire because the scarf burnt and freed her hands and feet,” he said. Rafi suffered burns to 80% 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.Rafi’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.”A police official said that they had also arrested the ruling party’s local chapter head, over allegations he advised one of the prime suspects to flee.Scores of protesters from campaign group Student Community Against Rape and Sexual Violence rallied in central Dhaka yesterday demanding a judicial probe into the role of the police in the killing. “Police are not guilty of negligence but are rather involved in the murder of Nusrat. The (sexual harassment complaint) was filed on March 27, but police took no prompt action,” the group’s convener Shibly Hasan said, according to the online edition of the Daily Star newspaper.Rights groups say 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,” Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said in a statement.“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.The local Manusher Jonno Foundation, a non-governmental group, says at least 39 children under the age of 18 have been abused in the country since April 2.Another eight have been subjected to attempted or sexual harassment, the groups says.