Teacher detained in Kushtia over remarks about PM Tarique Rahman’s Bengali

A schoolteacher in Kushtia’s Daulatpur was detained by police on Wednesday after allegedly making comments in a classroom about Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s Bengali language skills and his recent speech at the United Nations.

Golam Kibria Lalon, a Bengali teacher at Pragpur Secondary School, was detained around 11am after leaving the school and was taken from the Bheramara-Pragpur regional highway area. Police said no case had been filed against him as of Wednesday evening, while senior officials were reviewing the situation. 

The incident took place during a Bengali class for 10th-grade students on Tuesday. According to the school’s headteacher, Lalon said Tarique’s long stay in London had affected his practice of Bengali and that he could not speak Bengali properly, including during his speech at the United Nations.

The headteacher, Ashrafuzzaman Mukul, who is also chairman of Pragpur Union Parishad, told The Daily Campus that the issue came to the attention of local BNP leaders after a student reportedly informed their parents. The matter was subsequently discussed with local BNP leaders and Kushtia-1 MP Reza Ahmed Bachchu Molla, according to the headteacher.

On Wednesday morning, the school management committee held a meeting to question Lalon about the remarks. During the meeting, police and local BNP leaders arrived at the school, he said.

According to Mukul, the school authorities told police that the teacher could not be taken from inside the school premises. Police then said they would wait outside and detain him after he left the school, he said.

Mukul also alleged that some BNP activists present at the scene threatened to drag the teacher out if he was not allowed to leave voluntarily. As the situation became tense, school authorities advised Lalon to leave the premises to avoid an unpleasant situation, after which police detained him, he said.

The headteacher said Lalon acknowledged making the remarks during the class but that his exact intention could not be determined without speaking directly to the students who heard them.

“He may have said it as an example because he is a Bengali teacher. But if he was giving an example, he could have brought up another context as well,” Mukul said.

Daulatpur police duty officer SI Linkon Sarker told The Daily Campus at around 7:30pm that no case had been filed against Lalon at that point.

“Senior police officials, including the SP, are at the police station and reviewing the overall situation,” he said.

Other current reports also said Lalon denied making insulting remarks but acknowledged commenting that the prime minister’s long stay abroad may have caused some lack of clarity in his Bengali pronunciation. Police said the matter was under investigation and that further legal action would depend on the findings.