Cumilla’s Chandina Upazila Assistant Commissioner (Land), Faisal Al Noor, has been removed from his post on Thursday after handcuffing two journalists and sending them to a police station over a video recording incident.

Faisal was withdrawn from his role as Assistant Commissioner (Land) and assigned to the office of the Divisional Commissioner in Sylhet as a Senior Assistant Commissioner for future posting, according to a government notification issued by the Ministry of Public Administration.

The two journalists involved were Russel Sarkar, Debidwar correspondent of Daily Manab Zamin, and Abdul Alim, Debidwar correspondent of Face the People and the local newspaper Amar Shohor in Cumilla.

The incident sparked public outrage after a photo circulated on social media showing the journalists in handcuffs, prompting protests from local media personnel.

Abdul Alim explained that the conflict began over his cousin’s land registration case, which Faisal Al Noor had been delaying for the past year. On April 1, the hearing was scheduled, and Alim went to Chandina with Russel to attend.

He said, Around 1:45 pm, we asked the AC whether the hearing would take place that day. He became agitated and began mistreating us. When I tried to record the interaction on my mobile, he grabbed my phone. When I resisted, he called the police and handcuffed both of us, sending us to the station.

Alim added that despite identifying themselves as journalists, they faced mistreatment. At the station, their photos and videos were deleted, and they were forced to sign a statement promising not to pursue the matter further.