An incident has occurred in Mymensingh city in which a Chhatra Dal leader led a group into a veterinarian’s chamber and beat him and vandalized the premises over an extortion demand. CCTV footage of the incident has since spread on social media. Chhatra Dal has since expelled the leader from the organization.
The incident took place Friday at “Doctors Pet Care,” a chamber in an alley beside the city’s Zilla School. The affected veterinarian is named Ashiqur Rahman. On Saturday, he filed a written complaint at the police station naming three people: Talhajur Rahman, joint general secretary of Metropolitan Chhatra Dal, who was expelled just before the complaint was filed; Afrin Rashid Sejuti; and a person named Sakib.
The complaint states that the accused had repeatedly come to his chamber and demanded 500,000 taka in extortion money. When he refused to pay, he and his family members were threatened. Around 7 p.m. Friday, the accused entered the chamber and pressured him to pay. When he protested, he was beaten. The CCTV camera was then switched off, and he was beaten with an iron rod. When his employee, Ishan Ahmed, came forward to protect him, he too was beaten. His wife, Sajnin Tasnim Siddiqui, was also allegedly forcibly dragged out of the chamber.
Ashiqur Rahman stated in the complaint that 320,150 taka was taken from the chamber’s cash box. In addition, he said, lights, CCTV cameras and various other items were vandalized, causing about 180,000 taka in damage. After he filed the complaint at the police station, he, his employee and his family members were threatened with death.
CCTV footage of the beating spread on social media Saturday. The 1-minute, 48-second video shows a woman and several others entering the doctor’s chamber. At one point, the woman takes off her shoe and beats the doctor with it. Chhatra Dal leader Talhajur Rahman (alias Protik), who was nearby, films the incident on his mobile phone. Talhajur later also punches and strikes the doctor.
After the CCTV footage spread, the doctor’s chamber was found closed in the afternoon, and he could not be reached by phone. When police went to the scene in the evening, Ashiqur Rahman came to the chamber. He said Afrin Rashid had been writing Facebook posts about another doctor, prompting attacking comments from various accounts. The attack, he said, stemmed from suspicion that he himself was behind those comments using fake IDs.
Police said those involved have since gone into hiding. Abdullah Al Mamun, Mymensingh’s additional superintendent of police (administration), said it was initially learned that a dispute and mutual abuse had broken out among several people on social media over the treatment and death of a pet. He said the attack on the doctor stemmed from that dispute, and that necessary action is being taken over the incident.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report