DHAKA: A police constable has been arrested in Bangladesh for harassing and threatening to kill a woman professor of a private college for wearing a bindi, police said on Monday.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) said Constable Nazmul Tarek has been charged with harassing, abusing and physically attacking Prof Lota Sumaddaer, a theatre and media studies lecturer at Tejgaon College in Dhaka, Bdnew24.com reported.
"The constable is named Nazmul Tareque," Biplob Kumar Sarkar, deputy commissioner of the Tejgaon Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, was quoted as saying by the news portal.
"Our investigation found that he was involved in the incident," he added.
Dhaka Police Commissioner Mohammad Shafiqul Islam said that administrative action will be taken against the constable, who harassed the professor for wearing a bindi - a decorative mark applied on the forehead by women in the Indian subcontinent.
The professor had earlier in her complaint told the police that she had been feeling unsafe since the "man in the uniform" had tried to run her over with his bike when she protested his verbal abuses.
She then saved herself by quickly moving aside, but sustained some injuries as she fell on the street.
Meanwhile, the incident has sparked several protests throughout the country, with several organisations demonstrating and demanding that the police personnel be brought to justice.
"Where in the constitution of Bangladesh or in which law does it say that a woman cannot wear a teep?" lawmaker and renowned actor Suborna Mustafa said on Sunday while slamming the incident.
Mustafa, in her address to the parliament, demanded action against the accused policeman to ensure that such incidents do not occur in future.