In a harrowing display of vigilante justice, a 28-year-old woman—the wife of an expatriate worker—was bound to a tree, physically assaulted, and forcibly had her hair shorn off over allegations of an extramarital affair in Sadarpur upazila, Faridpur. The ordeal, which unfolded in a rural village on Sunday afternoon, triggered widespread public outrage after video footage capturing the brutal treatment began circulating rapidly across Facebook later that evening.
The conflict reportedly began on Saturday night, shortly after the woman returned to her husband’s home from her paternal residence. Family members claimed to have discovered a young man inside her room and immediately detained him as he attempted to flee the premises with the help of nearby residents. Rather than notifying law enforcement agencies, family members and local villagers took the law into their own hands. Both the woman and the young man were unlawfully confined overnight before being subjected to public humiliation and violence the following afternoon.
Two video clips documenting the abuse—measuring 1 minute 36 seconds and 1 minute 30 seconds respectively—have provided stark evidence of the assault. In the first clip, the victim is seen seated in a chair while two men forcibly restrain her. A youth in a black T-shirt pins her arms back while another wearing 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 torture continued unabated. Local sources identified the primary perpetrators in the recording as Suman Hossain and Joy Hossain, both relatives of the victim’s overseas-based husband.
The second video depicts a continuation of the punishment later that night, showing the bound woman and the young man tied securely to a tree trunk with thick ropes while onlookers subject them to physical beatings. Following the day-long ordeal, the woman was forcibly dispatched back to her father’s village, while the detained youth was subsequently released without charge 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 everyone involved. He stressed that under no circumstances should citizens take the law into their own hands, emphasizing that the legal system remains the sole authority entitled to investigate, judge, and penalize alleged criminal conduct. Police investigations are ongoing as authorities move to secure the victim’s safety and bring the perpetrators to justice.
