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A court has jailed two Hindu teachers in southern Bangladesh for making derogatory comments about Islam, invoking a rare law from the colonial era that makes insulting any religion a crime.
A court in southwestern Bagerhat sentenced the two teachers - Krishnapada Mouli and assistant teacher Ashok Kumar - of Hijla High School to jail for six months over remarks that sparked anger among people in the neighbourhood, reports and officials said. The incident came to light when students of Hijla High School complained that the assistant teacher of science on Sunday dismissed the Quran as the word of Allah and said there was no heaven, magistrate Anwar Parvez said.
The students, aged 17 to 18, along with others from a nearby Islamic school became incensed when the school's head teacher backed up his colleague. In no time, a mob, including students, parents and villagers attacked the teachers with sticks, forcing them to lock themselves in a room until police intervened, Parvez said.
The magistrate of the fast-track court said the assistant teacher pleaded guilty to publicly insulting religion, and the two were sentenced to six months behind bars.
The law against insulting religion, imposed when Britain ruled the Indian subcontinent, is rarely used and aimed at preventing communal clashes.
The Muslim-majority country - politically fractured between secularists and those wanting Islamic rule - has been roiled by an ongoing wave of deadly attacks on atheist writers, minorities and activists over the last two years.
(THE TIMES OF INDIA)
