Cox’s Bazar: A case was filed with Cox’s Bazar Sadar Model Police on Monday over alleged torture of the guardian of a kindergarten student by school authorities in Khorulia  of Sadar upazila of Cox’s Bazar.

Ranjit Kumar Barua, officer-in-charge of Sadar Model Police Station, said Ayatullah, the guardian, filed a case on Monday night around 7:00pm accusing six named and 5 unnamed individuals.

The accused are Jahirul Haque, Headmaster of Khorulia High School, Md Obayet Hossain, an assistant teacher of the school, Borhan Uddin, Headmaster of the adjoining KG and Pre-cadet School, Nurul Hossain, a record-keeper of the school, and two locals, Abdul Aziz and Mizanur Rahman.

According to the case statement, Ayatullah claimed that the accused tied him up and tortured him  on Sunday when he went to the school to enquire about an admission fee hike for the KG and Pre-cadet School where his son was enrolled.

‘The school authority increased the fees without any prior notice and I went there to ask about it,’ said Ayatullah, whose son had completed class one in the KG and Pre-cadet School and was preparing to start class two.

‘When I asked Borhan Uddin, he became angry and started misbehaving with me. When I protested against his behavior, Borhan Uddin called Jahirul Haque over phone. The staff and students of the high school also came with Jahirul Haque and started torturing me,’ Ayatullah added.

Jahirul Haque told UNB that Ayatullah is a ‘well-known criminal’, who had exercised ‘muscle-power’ to get his way in the area on numerous occasions in the past. He went on to allege it was in fact Ayatullah who had gone and picked a fight with Borhanuddin at the KG and Pre-cadet School. 

In Jahirul’s version of events, Ayatullah also attacked him when he arrived on the scene and asked why he was exercising muscle-power. And that is when the enraged students and staff of the school came together to give Ayatullah ‘a good beating’.

A video of this segment has been doing the rounds on social media, that seems to confirm it was somewhat more than ‘a good beating’. Ayatullah is shown tied to a rope and getting dragged along the ground while various individuals take turns at humiliating the already beaten man further. 

A huge crowd can be seen gathered around to witness the incident, although vast majority of them are clearly onlookers, not participants.

However the OC, Ranjit Kumar Barua, also said Ayatullah is a well-known criminal of the area, with 7/8 cases filed at the Sadar police station against him on different allegations.

Although that fact may lend greater credibility to the headmaster’s story that has Ayatullah as the aggressor, many viewers of the clip that has gone viral will surely conclude nothing can justify what is being done to him in the 2-minutes it captures.