Volunteers appointed by local admin assault tourists in Sylhet's Jaflong

Volunteers appointed by the Gowainghat administration have assaulted a group of tourists at Jaflong, a popular tourist destination in Sylhet.

The incident took place in front of the ticket counter around 2pm today, reports our Sylhet correspondent.

After the incident, two persons -- Laxman Chandra Das (21) and Md Selim Ahmed (21) -- have been detained by Gowainghat police in this connection, said Officer-in-Charge of Gowainghat Police Station KM Nazrul Islam.

Later, three more people were arrested. They are -- Sohel Rana of Nayabasti area, Nazim Uddin of West Kalinagar village, Zainal Abedin of Islampur Radhanagar village of Sylhet.

Additional Superintendent of Police of Sylhet District Police Md Lutfur Rahman said the situation is normal now. "Adequate police force has been deployed for the safety of tourists."

Several videos of the incident have already gone viral on social media.

In the videos, three men in blue uniform – with "volunteer" written on them – are seen beating up a group of tourists with sticks. Some women, from the same group of tourists,were also attacked when they tried to save them.

Confirming the incident, Upazila Executive Officer of Gowainghat, Md Tahmilur Rahman, said, "When the group of tourists wanted to enter Jaflong area without tickets and faced resistance, they started arguing with the volunteers at the ticket counter. At one point, the volunteers attacked the tourists."

"This incident is very shocking and it will cause huge loss to the local tourism sector. Since the attackers are volunteers employed by us, I take the responsibility. We have already suspended three volunteers and asked local police to take legal action against them," he said.

In-charge of Tourist Police in Jaflong, Md Ratan Sheikh, said, "Soon after learning about the incident, one of our teams went to the spot. This happened when we were busy as a tourist had gone missing after falling into the water at Jaflong."