Incidents of attacks and harassment of food inspectors in Khulna by dealers of Open Market Sale (OMS) have increased, and in most of the cases, the attackers remained unpunished.
According to sources, a dealer by the name of Aiyub Ali beat up Inspector Nazmul Islam on April 27. The incident took place in Dolphin More area of the city.
The following day, Nazmul Islam filed a case with the local police station. Members of the food inspector’s association brought out a procession protesting the incident.
Another dealer, Mahmuda Khatun’s husband, Asaduzzaman Khan Riaz, beat up a security guard named Haran Chandra Biswas on March 5, 2022. No action in this regard was taken against the accused, sources said.
Khulna district Food Controller Taijul Islam said that the officials of the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority regularly come under attack by OMS dealers. Although many have been prosecuted, none were punished due to a lack of evidence. The recent incident will be resolved once the regional food controller returns to office, he hoped.