The Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) of Mymensingh’s Trishal, Arafat Siddiqui, has allegedly assaulted an employee of a sand quarry leaseholder, with CCTV footage of the incident going viral on social media.
The footage, which is about a minute long, purportedly shows the UNO slapping a man several times and hitting him with a stick. Assistant Commissioner (Land) Md Mahbubur Rahman and members of law enforcement agencies were also present at the scene.
According to the leaseholder, the incident took place around 1:59pm on Wednesday at a sand sales point in the Kulurbaria area of Kalirbazar under Kanthal union of the upazila.
The leaseholder claimed that its employee Sarwar Jahan alias Bachchu was assaulted after he asked the officials who arrived for an operation to identify themselves, leading to an altercation.
The CCTV footage shows a team, led by the UNO, accompanied by members of Ansar and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), arriving at the sand sales point.
The UNO is seen asking for documents, while Sarwar Jahan, manager of Srishti Enterprise, asked the visiting officials to identify themselves.
At one point, the UNO allegedly slapped Sarwar several times.
A RAB member then appeared to try to take away Sarwar from the scene. The UNO allegedly took a stick from the RAB member and hit Sarwar several times with it.
Mahbubur Rahman is seen trying to stop the UNO.
Law enforcement members subsequently took away the sand quarry employee from the scene.
The leaseholder claimed that Sarwar was taken in a RAB vehicle to the Dhala area of Trishal after the incident. After he was released, relatives and representatives of the leaseholder took him to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital. His condition could not be known immediately.
Srishti Enterprise owner Shamsuzzaman Masud said they leased the sand quarry about five to six months ago for around Tk 2 crore and possess the necessary lease documents.
He alleged that Sarwar was assaulted after asking for time to show the documents during the operation.
“Our employee asked the people who came for the operation to identify themselves. He was assaulted immediately afterwards. We are concerned about the incident and demand a fair investigation and necessary action,” Masud said.
Several attempts were made to contact UNO Arafat over the phone for his comment, but he did not answer.
Mymensingh Deputy Commissioner Md Saifur Rahman said he saw the video.
“If the victim submits a written complaint, the matter will be examined and action will be taken accordingly,” he said.