Sixteen people have been sentenced to death in Bangladesh for the murder of a schoolgirl who was burned alive after she accused her school principal of sexual abuse, Daily Mail reported.

19-year-old Nusrat Jahan Rafi was lured to her school's rooftop on 6 April this year, 11 days after she reported the headmaster to police for repeatedly touching her inappropriately. Nusrat was then surrounded by four or five people wearing burqas, pressuring her to withdraw her complaint. When she refused, they set her on fire. According to police, they had hoped to make it look like a suicide. Instead, she managed to escape and get help, BBC reported.

Headteacher Siraj Ud Doula was among three teachers found guilty of the case, along with two leaders of a local political party.

Still on fire, she ran for help and was rushed to hospital with burns up to 80 percent of her body.

While on the way to the hospital, her brother made a video explaining what had happened and pointed to some of her attackers.

"The teacher touched me, I will fight this crime till my last breath," she said, naming some of her attackers. She died four days later in a hospital.

Her death provoked outrage and also highlighted the alarming increase in cases of sexual abuse in the South Asian country to 165 million people.