Police have arrested a UP member in a case filed against him for torturing a woman after garlanding her with shoes at Mollahat upazila in Bagerhat. Kawsar Chowdhury, an elected member of Ward-1 of Chunkhola Union Parishad of the upazila, was arrested from Srigati village in the upazila on Friday afternoon, said Bagerhat Additional Superintendent of Police Md Asaduzzaman. Earlier, a case was filed against nine people named and four to five more unnamed at Mollahat police station. Police said operations are underway to nab the other accused in the case. Legal action will be taken against anyone found guilty in the investigation, said the ASP. Meanwhile, before the arrest, UP member Kawsar held a meeting in the locality on Friday afternoon to resolve the issue. In the presence of dignitaries of the area, Kawsar confessed his crime and apologized to the housewife. And a video of him apologizing has already spread on social media Facebook. Earlier on Tuesday, a 30-year-old Bagerhat woman was garlanded with shoes and then tortured reportedly by the UP member with a bamboo twig accusing her of having an extramarital affair with a close relative. Read: Bagerhat housewife tortured, garlanded with shoes by ‘UP member’ The UP member along with his cohorts went to her house on the day and verbally abused her alleging that she has an illicit relation with her daughter’s father-in-law. The UP member and his abettors then garlanded her with their shoes and tortured her, witnesses said. The inhuman incident came in the limelight as a video of the vicious assault has gone viral on Facebook. The housewife alleged that they also snatched her gold ornaments she was wearing and a cellphone set worth around Tk 95,000. The woman told the UNB correspondent on Wednesday that she demands exemplary punishment of those who tortured and humiliated her. Mollahat Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Md Wahid Hossain told UNB on Thursday, “I’ve sent upazila assistant commissioner (Land) and women’s affairs officer to the woman’s house after seeing the video but she was not found there.” He said what happened to this woman was a criminal offense and police were asked to take action after contacting her. In Bangladesh, women and girls are facing growing violence in every stage of their lives as society thinks it is not that much of a serious issue. According to a report of Human Rights Watch, this crisis comes as Bangladesh enters the final phase of its national plan to build “a society without violence against women and children by 2025.”

A 30-year-old Bagerhat woman was garlanded with shoes and then tortured reportedly by a UP member with a bamboo twig accusing her of having an extramarital affair with a close relative. The inhuman incident came in the limelight as a video of the vicious assault has gone viral on Facebook. Villagers said the incident occurred at Singati village in Mollahat upazila of Bagerhat and the video was uploaded on social media the following day. Kawsar Chowdhury, member of Ward No-1 of Chunkhola Union Parishad, was said to be the man beating the woman. The video shows another man who was whirling the helpless woman while Kawsar was beating her with a bamboo twig encircled by onlookers. According to her neighbours, the ill-fated housewife lives alone with her four children at the village as her husband is a migrant worker. On Tuesday morning, the UP member along with his cohorts went to her house and verbally abused her alleging that she has an illicit relation with her daughter’s father-in-law. The UP member and his abettors then garlanded her with their shoes and tortured her, witnesses said. Read: Housewife tortured to death in Shariatpur Shocked by the incident, the woman had left the village to take shelter in an unknown place. She later came back and accused Sarwar of harassing her viciously. The housewife also blamed some of her neighbours for the attack on her.