The committee the home ministry set up to investigate the police attack on Feni sadar upazila assistant commissioner (land) Nazrul Islam has found both the police officers and the executive magistrates on duty responsible for the ‘untoward incident.’
The three-member committee, however, suggested further investigation of the incident to establish more specifically the responsibility for the occurrence, which, according to the report, could have been avoided in the district headquarters, a senior official concerned said.
The committee, led by joint secretary (law and planning) Shawkat Mostafa, handed over the investigation report to the home ministry’s senior secretary CQK Mustaq Ahmed on Sunday.
‘I have received the report and I will place it before higher authority for the next course of action,’ Mustaq told New Age.
On May 3, the Feni sadar police officer-in-charge, Md Nazim Uddin, sub-inspector Saiful Islam and a number of constables tried to interrupt an eviction drive of executive magistrates to reclaim government land in the district town.
During the incident that took place on the Dhaka–Chittagong trunk road in Feni, the assistant commissioner (land) and a number of local officials on duty were assaulted.
Sadar upazila nirbahi officer Shahin Akhter was also present on the spot. The police also abused the magistrates.
The incident caused a commotion in the top and field administrations, affecting the routine activities in civil bureaucracy, according to officials. 
Asked about the findings, the secretary, however, declined to say anything until higher authorities decide the next course of action in this regard.
Local officials said that none of the witnesses turned up to the committee to give their statements against the police fearing harassment by influential quarters in Feni. 
The report said that if administration cadre officials on duty had managed the situation efficiently, such a situation could have been avoided.
The police officials were found to have done excesses in dealing with the matter. ‘Inefficiency and excesses from both the sides led to the untoward incident which could have been avoided,’ according to the report.
The home ministry on May 7 set up the committee to investigate the incident and asked it to submit the report to the ministry in three days, according to an official order.
The order said that the magistrates were running a routine drive against illegal occupation to reclaim
government land. But it is believed that the police tried to stop the drive as shops were set up there illegally with the help of the Feni sadar police.
The decision on the investigation was made after about 30 officials of the administration cadre had called on the home minister, Sahara Khatun, at the secretariat and demanded removal and punishment of the police officials concerned.
Two others on the
committee are the cabinet division’s deputy secretary Md Azadur Rahman Mollik and assistant inspector general of police Alamgir Alam.
More than a dozen deputy commissioners on Wednesday expressed their concerns in writing to the cabinet secretary, Mohammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, and sought immediate measures to ensure that the police cooperate with the administration officials in carrying out state responsibilities in the field.
The district administrators are now seeking intervention of higher authorities in ensuring that the police serve the local administration in keeping with the law.