Teknaf Upazila Nirbahi Officer Mohammad Kaisar Khusru has been withdrawn from his post and made an officer on special duty (OSD) in a punitive administrative action for verbally abusing a local journalist over phone.

Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam said, “We’ve already instructed to withdraw him, making him OSD immediately. And then action will be taken against him as per the instructions to be given by the High Court.”

He was replying to a question during a media briefing on Monday’s Cabinet meeting.

Also read: HC calls Teknaf UNO ‘wrongheaded’ over verbal abuse of journalists

The divisional commissioners have also been instructed to sit with field level officers to discuss their etiquette and behavior, said the Cabinet secretary.

Meanwhile, the Cox’s Bazar district administration on Sunday issued a show-cause notice to Khosru asking for his explanation.

On Thursday last, the accused UNO called journalist Saidul Farhad over phone and harassed him verbally questioning why he wrote a report against the houses constructed under the Ashrayan-2 project seen as the prime minister’s gift to the homeless people.

As an audio record of the call that went viral on social media sparked huge criticism.

Later on Friday Cox’s Bazar DC held a meeting with the journalist and UNO to resolve the issue.

On Sunday, the High Court said that 'no one but a wrongheaded person can talk like this' as a lawyer brought its attention to a media report on the UNO’s act.

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“It is sad and unacceptable to harass a journalist in such a language,” said the court.

The higher court observed as the UNO has apologized he has accepted that his comment was not acceptable.