MP's men assault 2 land officials
Awami League lawmaker Muhammad Anwar Hossain of Pirojpur-3 on Wednesday allegedly assaulted and detained two officials of land revenue department at his residence in Pirojpur town for not entertaining his plea for leasing a piece of government khas land.
The victims--Golam Kuddus, assistant land officer, and Zahid Hossain, sub assistant land officer of Mathbaria municipal area in Mathbaria upazila under Pirojpur--later lodged complaints with the Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) against the lawmaker who was elected from Mathbaria.
Md Zakir Hossain, UNO of Mathbaria, told The Daily Star that upon receipt of the complaints from the two victims he informed the deputy commissioner of Pirojpur about the matter and forwarded the complaints to the DC yesterday.
When asked, the lawmaker told The Daily Star over cell phone yesterday that he had called the two land revenue officials to his residence and rebuked them for demanding bribes to give lease of a land for a mosque.
At the same time, some agitated party activists detained the officials in another room and might have misbehaved with them, said the MP.
However the municipal mayor rescued the officials and patched things up by distributing sweetmeats, the lawmaker added.
The victims told The Daily Star that Abu, a bodyguard of the lawmaker, entered the upazila land revenue office around 3:00pm Wednesday and demanded lease of government land in Marokkhola area of the town on the basis of recommendation of the lawmaker.
The bodyguard accompanied by party cadres forced the officials go on motorcycles to the residence of the lawmaker in Kaporpatty area of the district town at about 3:20 pm. They got angry after the officials told them that the decision regarding land was under the jurisdiction of the DC.
The lawmaker rebuked and physically assaulted them for ignoring his recommendations, the victims alleged, adding that the MP also ordered party cadres to detain them in a room.
The officials were then tied and detained in a room until the local municipal mayor and upazila AL president rescued them at about 4:15pm. The assaulted officials then filed the complaints with the UNO for necessary action.
Mayor Rafiuddin Ahmed Ferdous said, “We tried to resolve the misunderstanding between the land revenue officials and the lawmaker.”
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