Two days after winning hearts by completing a successful AFC U-16 Women's Championship Qualifiers campaign, nine members of the Bangladesh U-16 football team were brought crashing down to earth upon returning to their school, the Kalsindur High School and College in Dhobaura upazila, after physical education teacher Jobed Ali Talukder allegedly assaulted one of their fathers and threatened the girls with transfer certificates (TCs) on Wednesday night.
Forty-five-year-old Sabuj Miyah, Taslima Akhtar's father and a vegetable vendor, was allegedly first treated roughly on the school premises at noon on Wednesday and then assaulted in Kalsindur Bazar by Talukder and his associate at around 8:30pm.
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The trouble allegedly arose when Talukder learned of the girls' unavailability for this year's School Level Summer Football competition starting on September 16. The girls will be unavailable as they have to travel back to Dhaka on September 16 to join the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) training camp and attend a reception in the team's honour on September 17.
The teacher also reportedly threatened the nine players with TCs.
Sabuj was reportedly sharing the day's earlier events involving Talukder at his shop with Mohammad Mofizuddin, an assistant teacher of Kalsindur and, as the primary school coach, the driving force behind the school's football success.
Mofizuddin, a witness to the alleged assault, said: “When Sabuj was sharing the incident with me sitting on a bench, Jobed along with school clerk Moinul Hasan Rusel appeared at the scene and Jobed charged Sabuj about why he was sharing the matter."
According to Mofizuddin, Talukder kicked Sabuj down from the bench in front of a tailor shop. "Jobed kicked Sabuj repeatedly after he fell down," said Mofizuddin. It was learnt that people from neighbouring shops rushed to rescue Sabuj from Talukder's wrath.
Rusel reportedly also threatened even more harm to Sabuj if he spread news of the incident.
"At a meeting of the school teachers, we along with our girls went to the school at noon and the teachers pressed the girls to play for the Summer Football competition," Sabuj said.
"But we communicated our inability and chose to play for the federation and that we will have to leave for Dhaka on September 16 to be at a reception and join the BFF camp," his daughterTaslima informed.
"During the conversation, Jobed sir became very angry with us and asked the guardians to take the girls to sign a bond saying that their daughters are not eligible to study in the school."
"Four of the team members are
scheduled to sit for their examinations this year and the situation will hamper our education life seriously," said Mahmuda Akhtar, Taslima's teammate who was present at the school meeting with her father Nabi Hossain. "If we are issued transfer certificates, our education life will get ruined."
Md Jalal Uddin, principal of Kalsindur High School and College, said on Wednesday that he heard about the physical assault on Taslima's father and called an emergency meeting for Thursday.
The principal, who denied that Talukder had misbehaved with the girls and their parents or that he threatened them with TCs, however did say that the incident in Kalsindur Bazar took place.
Talukder was suspended temporarily for the alleged assault and served with a show-cause notice asking him to reply within 48 hours during the school governing body's meeting -presided over by governing body president Priyotosh Chandra Biswas Babul -- yesterday afternoon.
A three-member probe body headed by assistant headmaster Ratan Miah was also formed at the meeting to look into the incident.
Meanwhile, Sabuj Miah lodged a complaint with Dhobaura Police Station yesterday afternoon against Talukder.
Officer-in-charge of Dhobaura Police Station confirmed receipt of the complaint and related that, upon learning of the incident at the bazar a police team led by sub-inspector Mahmudul Hasan rushed to the spot but the accused fled the scene. Police drives are on to arrest the Talukder soon but he is yet to be arrested at the time this report was filed.
The aftermath of their rousing success has not been very sweet, as on Tuesday their journey back home was also mired in controversy as the BFF chose to send the U-16 team back on local buses without a chaperone and some of the girls were alleged to have been victims of eve-teasing during the journey.