Salim Osman to hold interactive meet Thursday to explain Narayanganj teacher’s shaming

MP AKM Salim Osman has announced he will hold an interactive meet to explain his position in relation to the humiliation of schoolteacher Shyamal Kanti Bhakta in Narayanganj.

News Deskbdnews24.com
Published : 25 May 2016, 07:11 PM
Updated : 25 May 2016, 08:06 PM

A press release issued by Osman on Wednesday said the meeting, in which notables from all classes, professions and communities have been invited, will be held at the Narayanganj Club at 5pm on Thursday.

The Jatiya Party lawmaker had earlier held a press conference on May 19 at the same place regarding the incident.

He had announced he would hold another media call on Monday, but later postponed it citing ‘requests from his party’s central committee’.

Jatiya Party Co-Chairman GM Quader has said that the party was ‘embarrassed’ by the MP’s action after he publicly shamed the teacher.

Since the incident, Osman is under fire from many including ruling Awami League leaders.

His press release said misunderstandings had been created among different quarters over the ‘undesired incident’.

On May 13, Shyamal Kanti Bhakta, the headmaster of Piyar Sattar Latif High School at Bandar Upazila, was beaten by a mob and made to do sit-ups holding his ears in public by Osman for allegedly insulting Islam.

As the incident sparked a storm of protests across the country, the government dissolved the school’s managing committee, which had sacked the Hindu teacher following the incident.

Bhakta, however, was reinstated, while Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said a government inquiry had not found any truth in the allegations levelled against the teacher.

Salim Osman, a businessman-turned-politician from the powerful Osman family in the district, had joined the Jatiya Party after his elder brother AKM Nasim Osman died in 2014.

He was elected from Nasim’s Narayanganj-5 constituency in June that year.​