Video of family feud misrepresented as ‘communal violence’ on social media

A video clip has been circulating on social media platforms, showing a woman being forcibly taken into a microbus in the Senbagh upazila of Noakhali. Some people have misleadingly captioned it as an incident of communal violence.

However, the victim’s father and the locals have provided a different explanation, which is contrary to the social media narrative. According to them, the incident was a kidnap-attempt by the woman's husband, and it did not succeed.

The incident took place on Thursday. Conversations with locals revealed that the woman had returned to her father’s home due to a family feud, and her husband, along with some accomplices, was trying to forcibly take her away in a microbus.

As the woman shouted for help, locals came forward, vandalised the microbus, and detained three of them, including the husband. The detainees were later handed over to the police.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, the father said his daughter was married nearly four years ago. Soon after, the son-in-law demanded a dowry of Tk 1 million, and the father managed to provide him Tk 300,000 only.

As the total demand was not met, the daughter was subjected to physical and mental abuse. Two years ago, she returned to her parents' home, and a local arbitration was held to arrange her separation.

As per the settlement, the son-in-law was supposed to pay Tk 180,000 to the daughter. When he refused the payment later, the daughter filed a lawsuit against him, according to the father.

Around one and a half months ago, the son-in-law, along with some others, attempted to kidnap the daughter as she attended a court hearing on the case. The attempt too remained unsuccessful as she managed to seek police protection through the national emergency hotline. In a fresh attempt, he tried to abduct her again on Thursday using a microbus.

The general secretary of the local union parishad’s Puja celebration committee also confirmed that the kidnapping attempt was a result of a family feud. The locals foiled the kidnap attempt and detained three of them, while the others managed to flee.

Najim Uddin, officer-in-charge of Senbagh police station, told Prothom Alo that he came to know about the incident but did not visit the scene due to the police force’s work abstention programme. The detainees are now in army custody.