A Grameenphone official, his wife and their domestic worker have been accused of beating a pet cat with a rod until it bled. Mobile operator Grameenphone Limited has said it will review the incident and take the necessary action against the official.

It said so in a post on its official Facebook page at around 3pm on Tuesday (13 May).

The post said: "Grameenphone respects all animals and believes in the coexistence of people and animals. We have recently become aware of an incident involving a pet and one of our employees." It added: "We strongly condemn any mistreatment of any animal," and said the matter was being reviewed quickly so that the necessary action could be taken.

Inquiries found that Grameenphone deputy director Kazi Hasan Mahmud lives with his family in a flat in the Bashundhara residential area. At around 2.30pm on Monday (12 May), the pet cat of a young woman named Ilma, who lives with her family in the neighbouring flat, got into his home. Angered by this, someone beat the cat with an iron rod, leaving it bleeding.

Ilma, the cat's owner, shared videos and photos on Facebook with a full account of the incident, which went viral. Since then netizens had been demanding that Grameenphone take action.

In a post on the Facebook group Cat Society of Bangladesh, Ilma wrote: "Today (Monday) at around 2.30pm my younger brother came back from school and said he had heard a cat screaming. I ran to find the source of the sound and saw the door of the flat of my neighbours Kazi Hasan Mahmud (deputy director, Grameenphone) and Farhana Khanam (official, Aristo Pharma) open."

"I went into their flat and saw their domestic worker Majida brutally beating a white cat with an iron rod. I rescued the cat and realised it was mine: a small, five-month-old female I rescued from the street a few months ago. She always stays indoors."

Ilma wrote: "The cat was bleeding, trembling, with blood coming from her nose, and could not move. She had been outside for only 10 minutes, and in those 10 minutes her body was crushed. Six months ago this same family threw another of my cats from the eighth floor; she suffered lung injuries, and even after nine months of treatment I could not save her."

"When I went calmly to protest today, they behaved badly, shouted at me and threw me out, verbally abused me and threatened to sue me. Yet the domestic worker Majida herself admitted that her madam, Farhana Khanam, told her to beat the cat. I have CCTV footage, photos and a video of the cat's cries."

Ilma has also said she will file a case at the police station. Attempts to reach the Grameenphone deputy director, named at this point in the report as Abu Hasan Mahmud, for comment on the allegations were unsuccessful, as his mobile phone was switched off.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.