Haimchar upazila AL general secretary and upazila chairman Nur Hossain Patowary has apologised for walking down a “human-bridge” made of school children.
Talking to the Prothom Alo, he said he will no more walk on such “human-bridge” in future. The people’s representative said he will neither attend such programmes nor allow holding of such ceremony in future.
A picture has gone viral on Facebook that a group of schoolboys are lined up facing each other in two rows, holding hands. They are holding up a line of boys lying face down, forming a human bridge. Other boys kneel down to create the stairs. A man climbed up and and walked on the backs of these boys, as if crossing a bridge.
He is none but Nur Hossain Patwary, the Haimchar upazila chairman in Chandpur and the general secretary of the upazila unit of ruling Bangladesh Awami League (AL).
The picture has elicited a volley of criticism on the social media. This is not the first time this has happened in the school. Whenever they have a chief guest, they make this human bridge for him to cross.
The upazila parishad chairman Nur Hossain Patwary was attending the Nilkamal High School annual sports day as chief guest on 30 January at Haimchar upazila. The boys of class nine and ten formed the human bridge which he then crossed. Pictures of this event were posted on Facebook.
Nur Hossain said that he had walked across the bridge on request of the students. He gave them Taka 5000 as reward for this event. He said that that certain persons had posted up the video on Facebook out of spite.
The school’s headmaster Mosharraf Hossain said, “Ever since I joined this school on 2002 I’ve seen the students making this human bridge. The sports teacher Prasanta Kumar Das had planned this bridge and every year they display it on sports day. Whoever is the chief guest walks across the bridge, even this year.”
Sports teacher Prasanta Kumar Das could not be contacted as his mobile phone was shut. And the school has been closed for Saraswati puja followed by SSC exams.
Source: Prothom Alo
