Dhaka, August 15 – The police of Boalia thana of Rajshahi are investigating the assault incident on a teacher of Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET) by a group of miscreants, for protesting sexual harassment of his wife at Sonadigir More of Saheb Bazar in the city on Friday.The incident came to light via a social media Facebook post by Md Rashidul Islam, an assistant professor of the department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE) at RUET, which quickly went viral and generated a firestorm of comments condemning the attack.
However, other than the social media post, Islam has remained silent, and was yet to file any complaint with police regarding the incident.
“Police visited the scene and collected footage from available close circuit cameras,” he said, adding that they were trying to identify the attackers. Police, meanwhile, have started investigating into the incident after recording a general diary, based on a telephone complaint filed by Rashidul’s father in law Nurul Haque, said Nibaron Chandra Burman, officer-in-charge of Boalia Police Station.
RUET Teachers’ Association (RUETTA) also expressed grave concerned and condemned incident in a statement saying human living in crisis of social and moral values.
Professor Dr SM Abdur Razzak, president of RUETTA said “The executive committee of the organisation will sit after open campus to decide on their course of action to ensure justice for our teacher Rashidul.
He said Rashidul received a cut on his face and bruises all over his body, and was resting at home. “We cannot imagine that an incident like this happened at the heart of the town. It’s an alarming fall of law and order,” he said.
In his Facebook post — that has since been shared over 5000 times since Thursday — Rashidul wrote the incident occurred while he was walking with his wife in front of Sona Dighi mosque in the area on Friday afternoon.
A group of youth miscrients were harassing them for some time. One of the stalkers pushed his wife on her back thrice with the intention of sexually harassing her, and when the stalker pushed her again, Rashidul protested. At this, the stalkers began beating him up, he added. “Some five to seven of the youths were assaulting me while at least 50 others were watching. I cried for help and none responded.” – Staff Reporter
