UNO in trouble

He wanted to enter the exam hall where his son was taking the SSC tests. But the UNO didn't allow this and asked him to leave the exam centre.

The man, father of the examinee, was not just any other guy. Being a municipality mayor and a local ruling party leader, he has diehard supporters, who wouldn't tolerate this all.

So, they locked the UNO office and demanded his removal. And the upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) had to leave the upazila under Rab escort.

It all happened at Kotalipara upazila of Gopalganj yesterday.

Son of Ahedul Islam Hazra, Kotalipara municipality mayor and former organising secretary of upazila Awami League, is an SSC examinee whose exam centre is at Kotalipara Public Institution.

Locals and witnesses said Ahedul along with upazila AL General Secretary SM Humayun Kabir and some other local leaders of the party were present at the exam centre since 9:30am.

They didn't leave even the exam started at 10:00am, and around 10:15am, the mayor wanted to enter the exam hall.

“Quite logically I rejected the plea and asked them to leave the centre,” said UNO Zial Hossain.  

The mayor and others, however, left the centre. But activists of local AL and Chhatra League brought out a procession in the upazila complex area at 11:00am, chanted slogans demanding removal of the UNO from Kotalipara, and locked the UNO office.

However, the AL men opened the lock around 2:00pm after Gopalganj Deputy Commissioner Khalilur Rahman went to Kotalipara on information. By the time, Zilal Hossain had left Kotalipara.

The UNO headed for Gopalganj town from the upazila in his own car and the elite force provided security, said Gopalganj Rab-8 Commander Maruf Hossain.

Contacted, Ahedul rejected all the allegations against him, saying, “It was just a misunderstanding between him and the UNO.”

His supporters neither locked the office nor demanded UNO's removal, he claimed.