Five people, including a woman and her daughter, were publicly humiliated on Friday and later handed over to police with a case filed against them on suspicion of being cattle thieves in Cox’s Bazar’s Chakaria upazila.
Before being handed over to the police, the five had to go through a medieval kind of shaming as they were tied with ropes and forced to parade through several areas in Harbang union of the upazila, according to several eyewitnesses.
A three-member probe committee was formed on Sunday to investigate the matter following the directives of Cox’s Bazar Deputy Commissioner Md Kamal Hossain.
Srabanti Roy, director of Cox’s Bazar Local Government Division, was made the head of the inquiry committee, said Chakaria Upazila Nirbahi Officer Syed Shamsul.
Locals accused Harbang union parishad (UP) Chairman Miranul Islam of orchestrating the punishment where some of the locals were also involved.
The photos and videos of public shaming went viral on Facebook.
Confirming the arrest, Chakaria police station Officer-in-Charge (Investigation) Mizanur Rahman on Sunday, said locals chased five members of a "cattle thieving syndicate" for a kilometre and held them at the union parishad office.
Police arrested them after being informed of the issue. A case was filed against them by one of the locals in this connection.
In primary interrogation, the arrested individuals confessed they were looking to steal cattle, said Mizanur, adding that: "We didn't initially know that they were forced to walk through the neighbourhood tied with ropes. Even the accused persons have not made any complaints."
Mizanur said the police has taken the matter seriously after they got to know about the punishment from social media posts.
Harbang UP Chairman Miranul said: "Locals of my area detained the five people including the women. Then they were brought to my office.
“I wasn't there at the time of the incident. When I was called by people in my area, I reported the matter to Chakaria police over the phone. Police took them from my office. I have neither harassed nor seen them.”
