School teacher quits after backlash over FB post on Pulwama attack

A teacher of a reputed school has resigned after protests erupted over one of his Facebook posts, which did not favour describing the CRPF personnel killed in the Pulwama attack as "martyrs".

Chitradeep Som, a 36-year-old history teacher, said the school forced him to quit for his February 15 post, questioning the logic behind hailing the jawans as martyrs "as they were just doing their duty".

His stance on social media resulted in a huge backlash with many people accusing him of insulting the security forces.

Som said the netizens complained against him to the school authorities and his house was attacked on Sunday by a mob, forcing him to shift to a relative's place.

"On Monday, the school authorities asked me to meet them immediately. Thereafter, I was forced to resign," he said.

The teacher, however, stood his ground and argued that expressing opinion wasn't a mistake.

"I don't think I committed any mistake by expressing my opinion and I never intended to malign our forces. Only a portion of my post had gone viral on social media, and on the basis of that, my house was attacked, I was manhandled," Som told PTI.

He also said a complaint was filed with North 24 Parganas police, following the attack on his house.

The school administration, however, denied Som was forced to resign and asserted he quit on his own.

"We have been receiving calls and messages from parents and others over his FB post. They asked us why someone like Som was appointed as a teacher by us. We were afraid that the school could also be attacked and the safety of our students might be at risk," a school official, who did not wish to be named, told PTI.

He also said Som offered to quit after the situation was explained to him.

"He said he would resign as he doesn't want the school to suffer because of his mistake. We did not force him to resign," the official added.

A terror strike on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir killed 40 jawans on February 14.