Schoolgirl burnt to death by stalker

Mariam Akhter Pinky

A 16-year-old schoolgirl has been burnt to death by a youth who had been stalking her since she refused his marriage proposal two years ago.
The victim, Mariam Akhter Pinky of Tarail upazila in Kishoreganj, died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital hours after she was set afire on Monday morning.
Initially, she was thought to have attempted suicide. But later on her deathbed, she described to her mother how Tobarak Hossain, 24, poured kerosene on her, lit fire and ran off.
“Ammu [mother], you've got to make sure he [Tobarak] is punished,” Pinky's mother Latifa Begum quoted her daughter as pleading before succumbing to severe burns all over her body.
Syed Mannan Ali, officer-in-charge of Tarail Police Station, said the girl had killed herself.
But as The Daily Star drew his attention to her last statement, the OC said he then needed to talk to the parents to know how she died.
Tobarak, who lives in the same village -- Kona Bhawal -- swooped on Pinky at around 7:30am when none of her parents or siblings was home.
Pinky, a class-ten student, was studying for examinations when she saw him on the doorstep with a one-litre plastic bottle full of kerosene.
Before she could move, he had emptied the kerosene bottle on her and threw a lit matchstick setting her ablaze, Latifa said quoting from the statement her daughter gave before death.
Flames swallowed up Pinky in no time.
At the time, her mother was on a walk in the neighbourhood. As she heard a shrill scream, she sprinted to her house to find a burning Pinky throwing herself into their pond.
Latifa and another daughter of her soon got Pinky out of water. With help from others, they took her to DMCH burn unit at around 2:00pm. After fighting for life for several hours, the girl died at 10:30 pm.
Locals said Tobarak, son of Jaru Mia, used to tease Pinky on her way to school and throw brickbats on their house at night.
Alfatun Bhuiyan, Pinky's rickshaw-puller father, said Tobarak on numerous occasions had told Pinky that he would throw acid on her if she did not marry him.
As harassment got intolerable, they sought an end to it through village arbitration, but to no avail.
Locals said most of the villagers are afraid of Tobarak as his brother work as a prison guard in Narsinghdi.
Neighbours said Pinky was a gifted dancer. Only a few days ago, she won Tk 10,000 in a dance contest in her school.
On March 17, Afroz Moni, a student of Kishoreganj Azimuddin High School, committed suicide failing to withstand relentless teasing.
Nashfia Akand Pinky, a class-nine student at the capital's West Agargaon, and Umme Kulsum Elora, 14, killed themselves in January and April under similar circumstances.