Bangladesh Teacher Doused in Kerosene for 'Sexually Explicit' Lectures

Dhaka, July 4, 2019:

The teachers in the port city of Chittagong in Bangladesh staged a protest on Wednesday after a professor was doused in kerosene by his students after a series of allegedly "inappropriate lectures".

The professor is question is Masud Mahmud, a professor of English literature at the private University of Science and Technology. He managed to flee the spot with help from other students.

Local police have confirmed that one of the students who 'attacked' the professor has been arrested.

The Bangladesh daily Prothom Alo says that the professor was chased by around half a dozen students before two of them shoved him, and another doused him with kerosene.

Dilip Kumar Barua, the registrar of the university, said the students attacked him after complaints that his lectures contained "sexually explicit" remarks, which made them "uneasy". Some of the students even submitted a memorandum to the country’s deputy education minister in April over the professor’s lectures.

University authorities investigated the allegation but found nothing untoward.

Meanwhile, Mahmud has come forward and said his attackers had wanted to kill him.

"All of a sudden a few unruly students dragged me from my office and poured kerosene on my body to set me on fire," he told media persons.

The president of a Chittagong teachers association, Zakir Hossain, has said that the students behind the incident should be arrested.

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