UNO allegedly breaks hands and legs of night guard in Bogura

Bogura Sadar upazila UNO allegedly beat up LGED employee Alamgir on Thursday night
Prothom Alo

Bogura Sadar upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) Samar Kumar Pal has allegedly beaten up a class IV employee of Local Government and Engineering Department (LGED).

The victim Alamgir Hossain Sheikh, 45, is a night guard of the LGED office.

The UNO beat him up at the upazila parishad complex at around 8:00pm on Thursday. Later, local people rescued him unconscious and admitted him to Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital in Bogura.

Alamgir said upazila engineer Mahbubul Haque was present while the UNO beat him up.

Bogura district administration has formed a committee headed by additional district magistrate Salahuddin Ahmed to investigate the incident.

Confirming the matter, Bogura’s deputy commissioner Ziaul Haque told Prothom Alo that the committee has been asked to submit a probe report within a short time. The UNO would face the music if the allegation of beating was found to be true, the DC added.

Alamgir Hossain told Prothom Alo that his wife verbally complained against him to the UNO over a family feud. The UNO summoned him to his office as he went on duty on Thursday evening. The UNO beat him with a stick severely while the bodyguard and Ansar members held his hand. Alamgir said his hands and legs have been broken by the beating.

"The engineer took the keys away from him and called two autorickshaw drivers to drive me out of the upazila parishad premises. Later I lost consciousness in front of the mosque.”

Alamgir’s daughter Lopa Khatun told Prothom Alo,“My parents had a quarrel over renting a house in the upazila quarter. Later, my father was served show-cause notice over the incident. But the UNO confined my father and broke his hands and legs of when he went on duty on Thursday. Later the upazila chairman took my father to Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital.”

Lupa said there is the law to punish her father if he is guilty but who gave the UNO licence to beat a government employee? UNO Samar Kumar Pal did not respond to calls and text messages while this correspondent tried to contact him for his comment on the matter.

The UNO, however, talked about the matter with the local journalists.

He denied the allegation of beating Alamgir saying a gang out to demean him is incriminating him.

Asked if the x-ray report found Alamgir’s hands and legs broken, Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital’s deputy director Abdul Wadud told Prothom Alo that the matter cannot be revealed to the media.