DHAKA – Sixteen people have been charged in Bangladesh over the shocking murder of a teenager who was burned to death after reporting sexual harassment.
Nusrat Jahan Rafi, 19, was doused with kerosene and set on fire on the roof of her Islamic school on April 6, days after filing a complaint.
Headmaster Siraj Ud Doula, targeted in the complaint, was among those charged.
Police said he ordered her murder from prison when she refused to withdraw her accusations against him.
They described the preparations for the killing as being like a “military plan”.
Protests
The case sparked mass protests in Bangladesh and shone a spotlight on the vulnerability of victims of sexual assault and harassment.
Rafi filed a police complaint against Doula in late March and he was arrested. On April 6 she attended the school to sit her final exams when she was allegedly lured to the roof of the school and set alight by a group of people. They had planned to make it look like a suicide, police said, but Rafi – who suffered burns to 80 per cent of her body – was able to give a statement before she died on April 10.
Police in Feni, a small town some 100 miles outside the capital Dhaka, formally laid murder charges yesterday against the 16 accused. ( BBC)
NUSRAT JAHAN RAFI
(BBC)
