The High Court has rebuked Teknaf Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Mohammad Qaiser Khosru, who used abusive language to a local journalist for publishing news item on corruption.
The higher court said the UNO’s abusive language to the journalist is very sad and unacceptable. “He used worse language than a hooligan,” said the court.
The HC bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Ahmed Choudhury rebuked the UNO and made the observation on Sunday following a media report on the matter that was brought to the bench’s attention by a lawyer.
The court also sought to know what departmental action has been taken against UNO Qaiser Khosru.
The HC bench asked Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin Manik to inform the court about this after talking to the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Cox’s Bazar.
Senior lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan drew the High Court’s attention to the incident of the use of abusive language by Qaiser Khosru to the Cox’s Bazar Correspondent of Dhaka Post, an online news portal.
At the time, the court said, “Journalists are the mirror of society. If they do anything wrong, there is law and also the Bangladesh Press Council for remedies. But use of such language from a first-class officer is totally unacceptable and offensive. No one but a wrong-headed person can use such language. He used worse language than a hooligan.”
Talking to the reporters on Sunday, Khurshid Alam Khan said, “According to a news source, The UNO misbehaved with a journalist. We feel that such behavior from a government officer is not legally correct. Such an officer has to talk in a responsible manner. I brought the matter to the notice of the court. The court read the news and agreed with our logic.”
The news item was published in the Dhaka Post on July 21 under the headline ‘Gift house built at low-lying place is floating in water’. The report states that all the new houses of the Ashrayan Project of the government built next to the Naf River in Hnila Hoabrang area of Teknaf upazila of Cox’s Bazar district are floating on water. As a result, the 27 families living there suffered immensely.
Local people had raised objections from the beginning about the gift houses built in a low-lying area. The houses were built on the occasion of Mujib Barsho. The local people complained that bricks were not used under the ground to the houses. Apart from this low-quality bricks, sand, rods, wood and other materials have been used in the houses.
About the allegation, Teknaf UNO Mohammad Qaiser Khosru said that a thief, another journalist, a yellow journalist and a journalist involved with Yaba trade are trying to blackmail them. “We are trying to identify them,” he had said.
The UNO got angry at Cox’s Bazar Correspondent of the Dhaka Post for highlighting the real situation in the published news. The UNO called the correspondent named Saidul Farhad from his official number on Thursday (July 21) around 09:45 PM.
The audio record of this call became viral on social sites, particularly in Facebook. UNO Qaiser Khosru apologised for the incident when the audio of the abuse spread on social media.
It was heard in the telephonic conversation that the UNO used vulgar language and demanded to know the reason for publishing the news item.
Later on Friday (July 22), a meeting was held in Circuit House of Cox’s Bazar with the leaders of Cox’s Bazar Press Club and the Journalist Union on the initiative of Deputy Commissioner Md Mamunur Rashid. Teknaf UNO Qaiser Khosru apologized to Cox’s Bazar district Correspondent of Dhaka Post for using unspeakable language.
DC Mamunur Rashid in the meeting said, “We are also very ashamed of this matter. We cannot expect such abusive language from a first-class government official. We will take departmental action against him.”
General Secretary of Cox’s Bazar Press Club Md Mujibul Islam, who was present at the meeting, said that the language used by the UNO to a journalist is not expected. He has lost the eligibility to stay in Cox’s Bazar district and Teknaf upazila. He should be quickly removed and brought to justice.