A video of a man burning his own motorcycle has gone viral on social media in Bangladesh and is being publicised as an incident of protest to counter “harassment” by traffic police.
The man is identified as Shawkat Alam Sohel on Facebook, and police said he is a motorcycle rider for a ridesharing service. The video on Facebook shows the motorcycle being burnt on Dhaka’s Badda Link Road in Gulshan on Monday.
Sohel had “acted on impulses” after a case was filed against him for violating the country’s traffic laws, police said. bdnews24.com could not immediately contact Sohel for comment as he was taken into police custody shortly after the incident.
The viral video shows a red motorcycle ablaze while a man standing next to it throws his helmet and a few other things into the blaze.
Locals and two policemen at the scene attempted to douse the fire while the man was repeatedly said: “Do not come here.”
One of the locals can be heard saying “calm down, brother” as the man burning his motorcycle went on a rant.
When asked about the viral video, Md Munibur Rahman, a senior police officer from the Dhaka Metropolitan Police traffic section, said: “The man and a few others kept their motorcycles parked during office hours at an intersection of Badda Link Road in Gulshan. It disrupted traffic.”
“Police then arrived at the spot and filed cases over the illegal parking of the vehicles. Afterwards, the man acted on impulse and created a scene. After checking our records, we found another case was filed against him over illegal parking previously,” Munibur added.
Badda Police Station chief Abul Kalam Azad said, “We are investigating the matter."
Shawkat has been taken to the police station with the remains of his motorcycle. Azad said police have taken him into custody to “have a talk” with him.