Harassment of DU BCL leader: Dharmapasha OC withdrawn, case filed

Officer-in-charge of Dharmapasha Police Station Delwar Hossain was withdrawn and attached to Police Lines last night over the incident of harassment of a Dhaka University BCL leader in Sunamganj.

Sunamganj Police's Assistant Superintendent (Dharmapasha Circle) Sujan Chandra Sarkar confirmed the development to The Daily Star this morning.

The BCL leader, Afzal Khan, international affairs deputy-secretary of DU unit, filed a case last night with Dharmapasha Police Station, accusing 29 named and 20-25 unnamed persons, reports our Sylhet correspondent.

On March 29, Afzal gave a post on his Facebook, criticising Hefajat-e-Islam for their recent vandalism all over the country.

Afzal alleged that he was harassed at Jayasree Bazar in Dharmapasha upazila on Tuesday afternoon by supporters of Hefajat-e-Islam and some local Awami League leaders for criticising the Islamist organisation.

After he posted on Facebook, Al Mujahid, son of local AL leader Abul Hashem Alam, gathered a mob and harassed Afzal at Jayasree Bazar.

Afzal was later confined into the union AL office in presence of the AL leaders.

Police reached there after two hours and handcuffed the BCL leader. They forced him to apologise to the crowd gathered there, Afzal earlier alleged while talking to The Daily Star.

Police took him to the police station and released him later.

On Tuesday night, Sub-inspector Jahirul Islam and Assistant Sub-inspector Anwar Hossain of the station were withdrawn and attached to the Police Lines over the incident.

Police also arrested AL Jayasree Union unit's general secretary Abul Hashem Alam in connection with the harassment last night.

Alam was suspended from AL in an emergency meeting called by the upazila Awami League unit yesterday.

Contacted, Al Mujahid yesterday said, "After he [Afzal] posted on Facebook, local religious people became agitated and I tried to make him understand that he as a Muslim made a mistake [giving the post]."