In a harrowing instance of vigilante justice, a 28-year-old woman, the wife of an expatriate worker, was tied to a tree, physically assaulted, and forcibly had her hair shorn off over allegations of an extramarital affair in Faridpur’s Sadarpur upazila. The ordeal, which unfolded in a rural village on Sunday afternoon, triggered widespread outrage after video footage capturing the brutal act began circulating rapidly on Facebook later that evening.
The assault reportedly stemmed from an incident on Saturday night when family members discovered a young man inside the woman’s room shortly after she had returned from her paternal home. Relatives and local residents detained the young man as he attempted to flee the premises. Rather than handing the individuals over to law enforcement agencies, the family and local villagers took the law into their own hands, confining both individuals overnight before subjecting them to public humiliation and violence the following day.
Two separate video clips documenting the torture—lasting 1 minute 36 seconds and 1 minute 30 seconds respectively—detailed the extent of the violence. In the first footage, the victim is seen seated on a chair while two men violently restrain her. A young man clad in a black T-shirt holds her arms firmly, while another in a checkered T-shirt uses a pair of scissors to crudely hack away at her hair. Despite her frantic screams and desperate pleas for mercy, the torment continued unabated. Local sources have identified the primary perpetrators in the video as Suman Hossain and Joy Hossain, both of whom are related to the victim’s overseas-based husband.
The second video clip reveals a continuation of the punishment later that evening, showing the bound woman and the detained young man tied tightly to a tree with thick ropes while onlookers subject them to physical beatings. Following the prolonged torture, the woman was forcibly dispatched back to her father’s residence, and the detained youth was subsequently released by the villagers.
Reflecting on the unlawful nature of the incident, Abdullah Al Mamun Shah, Officer-in-Charge of Sadarpur Police Station, confirmed that multiple police squads have been deployed to identify and apprehend all individuals involved in the assault. He emphasized that under no circumstances should citizens take the law into their own hands, reaffirming that the legal system remains the sole entity authorized to adjudicate alleged offenses. Police investigations remain ongoing as authorities move to secure the arrest of the perpetrators.
