Shyamal Kanti’s police protection withdrawn

The police protection given to the head teacher of Piyar Sattar Latif High School in Narayanganj’s Bandar, Shyamal Kanti Bhakta, has been withdrawn. He went to the school and visited other places on Thursday without police protection as the decision came into effect on Wednesday. “I came to school comfortably. There is no problem as of now. The superintendent of police has assured me that everything will be alright. I will observe the situation for some days,” said Shyamal. The head teacher had faced humiliation in the hands of the mob on May 13 last year, as the  result of a false allegation that he had defamed Islam. Mentioning that there were no directives from any court on Shymal’s security, Narayanganj Additional Police Superintendent Faruk Ahmed said: “We provided him police protection as we felt it necessary at that time, but now he is doing well. That is why the police protection has been withdrawn.” On May 13, an angry mob, which included the school’s management committee members, beat up the teacher while accusing him of making derogatory remarks on Islam. Later, Narayanganj 5 lawmaker from Jatiya Party AKM Salim Osman, made Shyamal do squats by holding ears. Soon after the news broke, people from all walks of life, except for the radical Islamists, condemned the assault on the teacher. On the other hand, Islamist groups and militants have called for the death of the teacher in social media campaigns. The school’s management committee also fired Shyamal after the incident, which triggered outrage. But Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid later declared the committee’s decision to sack Shyamal illegal. The government reinstated him and dissolved the committee after a primary probe that found the allegations against him false. The judicial probe body, formed to look into the humiliation of headmaster Shyamal Kanti Bhakta in Narayan-ganj, submitted its report to the High Court on January 19, blaming local MP AKM Salim Osman for the incident.