2 youths tortured overnight

Two men were tortured overnight on Sunday, with a nail being driven into one of the victim's legs, by a group of villagers at Debipur village in Rajshahi's Tanore upazila.

Feroz Kabir, 24, a saloon owner, and Jasim Uddin, 28, a driver, were admitted to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital on Monday afternoon, said police and their family members.

Dr Saiful Ferdous, the deputy director of RMCH, said the doctors conducted a surgery on Feroz and removed the nail from his right leg today.

Feroz's father said he filed a complaint on Monday night with Tanore police station accusing 11 persons including Talondo Union Parishad member Mamunur Rashid and Abdur Rahim of Debipur village.

But the police were yet to record the complaint as a case as of this afternoon.

"We have received his [Feroz's father] complaint. We will investigate the complaint and record the case soon," said Rakibul Islam, officer-in-charge of Tanore Police Station.

Feroz's uncle Kamal Hossain who was attending Feroz at RMCH, said Feroz and Jasim went to a relative's house by a motorcycle on Sunday night.

As they were returning home around 9pm, a group of villagers led by Mamun and Rahim surrounded them and accused them of being thieves.

They tied them to two separate plastic chairs and tortured them. The attackers also vandalised their motorcycle.

The attackers asked them to confess that they were thieves and when they refused, the assailants hammered in a nail on Feroz's right leg, Kamal Hossain said quoting Feroz.

Later on Monday afternoon, one of the attackers called Feroz's mother and sister and handed over the two men to them.

The family members then took them to RMCH.

Mamun and Rahim had previous enmity with Feroz, Kamal said.

He said Feroz had a saloon at Debipur village. He removed the saloon from the village as he developed an enmity with Rahim.

Ifte Khair Alam, additional SP of Rajshahi, said, "We heard about the torture and have instructed the local police to investigate and report to seniors for legal action."