Noakhali Jubo Dal leader assaults woman in public, video goes viral

A local Jubo Dal leader has been accused of physically assaulting a woman in public in Noakhali's Subarnachar upazila, according to allegations made by the victim.

A video of the incident has since circulated on social media.

The incident occurred around 11am today (13 June) in Mohammadpur union of the upazila. The accused, Md Shafik, 38, is a former general secretary of a ward unit of Jubo Dal in the union, reports Prothom Alo.

Md Lutfor Rahman, officer-in-charge (OC) of Char Jabbar Police Station said police had launched efforts to apprehend the accused after seeing the video circulating online.

"No written complaint has been filed yet. If a complaint is submitted, legal action will be taken following an investigation," the OC said.

According to the woman, her husband worked at a fish farm owned by Shafik, who allegedly withheld his salary for the past two months, causing financial hardship ahead of Eid-ul-Adha.

She alleged that a dispute broke out on this morning when Shafik attempted to remove fishing nets her husband had placed in a nearby river. During the altercation, Shafik allegedly assaulted her husband with a plastic pipe containing an iron rod.

The woman further claimed that around 11am, Shafik returned with his brother-in-law, Nur-e-Mawla, and again attacked her husband. When she intervened, she was also assaulted.

Shafik denied the allegation of assaulting the woman while speaking to local media.

He claimed that the woman's husband had stolen fish from his farm a few days earlier.

According to Shafik, the couple attacked him while he was retrieving fishing nets this morning and injured him by breaking his nose.