The government has withdrawn Trishal Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Arafat Siddiqui following an alleged assault on an employee of a sand quarry leaseholder.
The Ministry of Public Administration issued a notification on Thursday, attaching the UNO to the ministry.
The move comes a day after Arafat Siddiqui allegedly assaulted the sand quarry leaseholder’s employee on Wednesday, with CCTV footage of the incident going viral on social media.
The roughly one-minute footage appears to show the UNO slapping a man several times and hitting him with a stick. Assistant Commissioner (Land) Md Mahbubur Rahman and members of law enforcement agencies were also present at the scene.
According to the leaseholder, the incident took place around 1:59pm on Wednesday at a sand sales point in the Kulurbaria area of Kalirbazar under Kanthal union of the upazila.
The leaseholder claimed that its employee Sarwar Jahan alias Bachchu was assaulted after he asked the officials who arrived to conduct an operation to identify themselves, leading to an altercation.
The CCTV footage shows a team, led by the UNO, accompanied by members of Ansar and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), arriving at the sand sales point.
The UNO is seen asking for documents, while Sarwar Jahan, manager of Srishti Enterprise, asked the visiting officials to identify themselves.
At one point, the UNO allegedly slapped Sarwar several times.
A RAB member then appeared to try to take Sarwar away from the scene. The UNO allegedly took a stick from the RAB member and hit Sarwar several times with it.
Mahbubur Rahman is seen trying to stop the UNO.
