When a teacher is a terrorist

In an incident that seems stranger than fiction, Raihan Sharif, a teacher of Shaheed M Mansur Ali Medical College in Sirajganj, reportedly shot a third-year student in the leg during a viva exam. While the student, Arafat Amin Tamal, was miraculously spared his life as the bullet first hit the mobile phone in his pant pocket, the fact remains that a teacher had the audacity to open fire on his student. According to witnesses, not only did he injure Tamal, but he also threatened to shoot the victim’s friend, who wanted to take him to the emergency unit for treatment. The details of the incident are beyond horrifying.

What’s even more shocking is that Sharif is known to wave around his gun regularly during class hours, threatening students from time to time and harassing them in various ways. Some students also claimed that he would make video calls to female students at night, make untoward proposals, and issue threats if they refused to comply.

We are glad to note that Sharif has been arrested and placed on remand, partly thanks to the students who locked him up in a room following the gunshot and initiated a boycott of classes. We can only hope that justice is served instead of being indefinitely delayed, and that the court is cognizant of the risks associated with releasing Sharif on bail, given how students and other faculty members are terrified of what he might do to them once released.

The bigger concern, however, remains: how could such a man be allowed to teach students in the first place? Why was no action taken against a teacher who placed his gun on the table before delivering his lectures? One who, according to students and other faculty members, regularly terrorizes students? The principal of the medical college claims that he had “urged” Sharif not to carry his gun and that he had informed higher authorities, seeking the teacher’s transfer, adding that the school administration was too afraid to do anything beyond issuing warnings. Some of his colleagues told Prothom Alo that he was the vice-president of Rajshahi Medical College’s BCL unit. Could it be his party affiliation that gave him such free reign over the campus? Whatever the reason may be, it is simply unacceptable that Sharif was allowed to put students’ security and sanitation at risk on a daily basis. The college administration, particularly the principal, must answer for their failure to protect students from such lecherous and criminal behavior.

The incident may have been an isolated one, but it hints at a broader crisis in our education system where morality is held hostage by power, and where knowledge is subservient to fear. What can we expect from our youth if people like Raihan Sharif are entrusted with the sacrosanct responsibility of molding their minds?