Youth beaten to death at Jashore drug rehabilitation centre

A youth by the name of Mahfuzur Rahman, 20, has been beaten to death at a drug treatment and rehabilitation centre in Jashore. 

The victim Mahfuzur Rahman was a drug addict. His father Md Moniruzzaman, a resident of the bus stand area in Chuadanga's Jibonnagar, admitted him to the individually owned rehabilitation centre on 26 April. 

Police arrested 14 people, including the director of the centre, after a case was filed with Kotwali police station in connection with the murder today. 

According to family and police sources, in hope of bringing him back to normal life, Mahfuzur's father admitted him to the drug treatment and rehabilitation centre located near the railroad in Jashore town. 

On Saturday morning, Mahfuzur entered the centre's kitchen to make some flatbread (chapati) when the staff of the centre stopped him from doing so. 

When he did not listen to them, officials and employees and other residents of the center beat Mahfuzur with bread rolling pins (belun). At one stage of the torture, he defecated and he was made to clean it. Later they took him to a toilet and poured water into his mouth. At one point he died. 

The people of the center brought him to Jessore General Hospital and left the scene. The body was later kept in the morgue as an unknown person who died a natural death.

After being informed of Mahfuzur's death, his father identified his body at the hospital and filed a complaint with the police station. 

Later, police collected CCTV footage from the rehabilitation centre. 

Responding to the incident, Tajul Islam, officer-in-charge of Kotwali Police Station, said the footage shows Mahfuzur being brutally beaten by 12 to 14 people in a room. He died of inhumane torture.

The rehabilitation centre's directors Ashraful Kabir, and Masum Karim with 14 officials and employees, have been arrested on charges of involvement in the murder.

Tanmay Biswas, a physician at the emergency unit of the hospital, said a dead body was brought to the emergency unit on Saturday afternoon. But the people who brought the body left the hospital without registering their names or the victim's name and identity. 

There were wound marks on the back and shoulder of the victim, according to the post mortem report. 

After being arrested, the centre's director Masum Karim said Mahfuzur pushed another attendee of the centre. Angered, a few people there beat him and he died.