UNO hurt as AL, BCL men attack office
UNO hurt as AL, BCL men attack office
Activists of Awami League and Chhatra League yesterday attacked the office of Nawabganj Upazila Nirbahi Officer in Dinajpur, leaving the UNO critically injured.
UNO Syed Farhat Hossain sustained severe injury to the head in the attack carried out around 11:30am, Ahmed Shamim Al Raji, deputy commissioner of the district, told The Daily Star yesterday.
The ruling party men went on the rampage, attacking the UNO and vandalising furniture at his office over recruiting night guards at 39 primary schools in the upazila, the UNO office sources said.
The UNO had forwarded necessary papers to the relevant government office on Wednesday for the disbursement of the 39 night guards' salaries.
The night guards' appointments were finalised in December last year.
The attackers were against the decisions as they had already taken Tk 300,000 to Tk 600,000 from many as bribe promising them to give the jobs, added the sources.
To protest the UNO's decision, some 60 AL and BCL men led by Ziaur Rahman Manik, joint secretary of Nawabganj AL unit, brought out a procession from the upazila town area in the morning.
At one point, they carried out the attack on the UNO office.
Breaking the collapsible gate, they also ransacked three rooms of the office including the one of the UNO, sources said adding that the UNO was beaten indiscriminately with sticks at that time.
Valuable documents in those rooms were also damaged in the attack.
Police, however, went there when the attackers left. They took the injured UNO to the hospital later.
Contacted, Ziaur Rahman Manik denied the involvement of AL and BCL in the incident.
He alleged the UNO and Didarul Islam, upazila education officer, had recently taken around Tk 1 crore as bribe from the recently appointed night guards at the schools.
“Those who were deprived of the jobs carried out the attack,” Ziaur alleged.
Didarul denied the allegation.
Legal action would be taken against those involved in the incident, Md Ruhul Amin, Dinajpur superintendent of police, said.
“A case will be filed soon,” he added.
Chhatra League is the pro-AL student organisation.