The headmaster of Jurain Hajera High School in the capital’s Kodomtoli has begged for forgiveness from his student whom he made to squat for 500 times as punishment on Sunday.
Headmaster Alfaj H ussain yesterday evening visited the house of Md Panir Hossain, a seventh-grader who was hospitalised after Alfaj had hit him with bare hands and forced him to do 500 squats, and talked to his parents.
Panir’s brother Polash Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune that Alfaj apologised to his brother.
“The head teacher said he had realised that what he did was wrong and this would not happen again in the future. He also wanted to bear my brother’s hospital bills,” he said.
Fresh allegation against Alfaj
This could well have been the end of the story, but Polash alleged that Alfaj threatened his sister Fatema Akhter, 16, in school and verbally abused her yesterday.
“Alfaj is now claiming a bribe of Tk5,000 for letting my sister take the upcoming SSC exams. He told her that she would not pass the exams if the money was not paid. She told us this after returning from school,” he said.
“The head teacher had demanded the same amount of money from my elder sister Khaleda Akhter Dipu before she took her SSC tests. I left the school at class IX after I observed that Alfaj was treating my elder sister badly.”
Polash believes the apology Alfaj had offered to Panir was not sincere and aimed at dissuading the parents from taking any legal action against him.
“Alfaj was accompanied by some elders when he came to our house. We are supposed to complain to the head teacher if any teacher makes mistakes but who will we go to when the head teacher himself does something wrong?” he said.
Describing how Alfaj conducts recruitment drives at the end of each year, Polash said: “In November-December, he visits houses in the area and requests parents to send their children to his school. He also came to our house and made the same request. As we had financial problems, my parents said they would send Panir and Fatema to school if one of the two was allowed to study without paying any tuition fee. But he did not keep his words later and avoided talking about it.”
Polash said the family wanted to file a case against Alfaj despite the apology.
“We have decided not to send Panir to the school but I am very concerned about my younger sister. The incident of my brother is not the only one as the head teacher has previous records of subjecting many students, including girls, to severe punishment. In a previous incident, he punched a female student in her abdomen and slapped her,” he added. When contacted, Alfaj told the Dhaka Tribune over phone yesterday that the issue had been resolved.
“I already said sorry to Panir,” he said.
However, in an overt contradiction of what he just said, Alfaj denied having physically punished Panir and hung up abruptly. He did not receive any call afterwards.
Panir’s parents have demanded Alfaj be removed from the school.
Officer-in-Charge of Kodomtoli police station Md Abdus Salam Mia told the Dhaka Tribune that no such incident was reported.
Following the punishment on Sunday, Panir fainted on the road.
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