Unidentified miscreants set fire to the zonal office of Grameen Bank in the Upashahar area of Sylhet city late on Sunday night, damaging crucial official documents and a vehicle used by a senior bank official. The incident occurred at approximately 3:50 am, sparking fresh security concerns over institutional properties in the north-eastern divisional headquarters.

According to Abul Hossain, the Zonal Officer of Grameen Bank’s Sylhet zonal office, the night watchman stationed at the premises alerted him by telephone in the early hours of Monday after noticing the blaze. Hossain immediately rushed to the site accompanied by three others and managed to douse the flames using water before the situation could escalate into a major structural inferno.

Personnel from the Sylhet Sadar Fire Service and Civil Defence arrived at the scene shortly afterwards. Kshitish Kumar Das, the station leader of the local fire service unit, confirmed that upon reaching the Upashahar office, his team found that bank officials had already brought the fire under control through their own prompt efforts.

The blaze caused significant damage to vital administrative records and partially destroyed a car belonging to an official parked within the compound. Grameen Bank, which serves as a primary microfinance institution across rural and semi-urban Bangladesh, relies heavily on regional zonal offices to coordinate loan disbursements and operational records, making the loss of physical documentation a notable disruption.

The attack follows a curious precedent just two days earlier, when false reports claiming the same zonal office had been set ablaze circulated widely on social media platforms. While bank authorities had dismissed those earlier claims as baseless rumours, Sunday night’s actual arson incident has raised questions among local observers about whether the earlier misinformation was a precursor to a targeted act of sabotage.

Following the incident, bank authorities lodged a general diary (GD) at the Shahporan Police Station on Monday morning. Ferdous Ahmed, Officer-in-Charge of Shahporan Police Station, stated that an official investigation is now underway. Law enforcement officers have already collected closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage from several neighbouring establishments in Upashahar to identify the perpetrators and determine the motive behind the late-night attack.