Two publicly tortured in Meherpur over alleged affair as police launch investigation

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A mob in Meherpur district subjected a housewife and a local shopkeeper to a public beating on Monday morning, accusing the pair of having an extramarital affair. The incident, which took place in a village within the Sadar upazila, drew condemnation after a video of the assault circulated widely on social media.

According to witnesses, a group of villagers seized the victims around 9:00 a.m. and tied them to a guava tree. The five-minute and 21-second video depicts the two victims, who are local residents, pleading for mercy as they are repeatedly slapped and struck by several onlookers. Despite the visible distress of the victims, witnesses at the scene reportedly made no attempt to intervene, choosing instead to record the violence on their mobile phones.

The victimized woman, who is the wife of an expatriate and a mother to a four-year-old child, told the Bangladeshi newspaper Prothom Alo that the shopkeeper had arrived at her home to collect an outstanding payment. She stated that the group dragged them from her house, assaulting them with sticks and their hands while onlookers mocked them. Witnesses noted that the woman’s young child was seen clinging to her mother throughout the ordeal.

A relative of the shopkeeper, who has since fled the area out of fear, described the assault as a premeditated act of brutality designed to humiliate the victims and extort money through an informal village court, or “shalish.” He criticized the lack of rule of law in the area, noting that the perpetrators acted with complete impunity.

Local authorities have since launched an investigation into the incident. Meherpur Sadar Police Station Officer-in-Charge Humayun Kabir confirmed that law enforcement arrived at the scene shortly after the video surfaced online. Describing the attack as barbaric and inhumane, Kabir stated that police are currently identifying the individuals involved in the mob and have initiated a process to ensure their arrest. He emphasized that the authorities would show no leniency toward those who take the law into their own hands.