Teacher 'forced' to resign

30 January 2009, 18:00 PM

A Correspondent, Jessore

Awami League (AL) activists have allegedly forced a schoolteacher in Sharsha upazila in the district to sign a resignation letter at gunpoint. The victim, Saheb Ali, a teacher of Sharsha Dhanyokhola High School, also a local BNP leader, said he faced the situation due to political reasons. He was taking class at the school at about 11:00am on Wednesday when a group of armed men led by Awami League's Bahadurpur union unit General Secretary Mofizur Rahman Mofiz appeared and asked him to sign on a resignation letter prepared by them. They also brought his son Shibli Sadik Tushar, a class nine student of the school, to confine him in a bathroom. At this stage, Shaheb signed the letter, he said. Later, BNP leaders informed Jessore deputy commissioner of the matter. However, local AL leaders denied the allegations and said Shaheb was appointed a teacher at the school through political influence during the BNP-led four-party alliance rule. When contacted, Benapole Port Police Station officer-in-charge Nurul Amin expressed his ignorance about the incident.