Bagatipara (Natore) Correspondent

Upazila Birbahi Officer (UNO) Debashish Basak has stood by Shahadat's family after his only source of income, a teenage van driver from Bagatipara Upazila, Natore, was stolen through fraud.

On Wednesday, UNO delivered essential dry food items including rice, pulses, oil, sugar and salt to Shahadat's family from the allocation of the Ministry of Relief and Disaster Management of the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh.

It is learned that Shahadat's father Sabuj Hossain died after falling from a building while working as a plumber in Dhaka five years ago. After that, the family took shelter with his mother and younger brother at his maternal grandmother's house in Paka Shalainagar village of Bagatipara Upazila. Due to extreme poverty, Shahadat left school and took on the responsibility of the family at the age of 13. The family was running on a battery-powered van purchased with a loan of one lakh taka from an NGO, and the loan installments were also being paid.

On Tuesday afternoon, two fraudsters disguised as passengers from Malanchi boarded Shahadat's van, claiming to be going to Banpara. They cleverly sent him to an alley when they reached the Banpara Church Road area. When Shahadat returned, he found that the two fraudsters had disappeared along with the van. Having lost his only means of income, he broke down in tears standing by the roadside. Despite a lot of searching, the locals could not find any trace of the van.

When the incident came to light, UNO Debashish Basak inquired about Shahadat's family and provided government food assistance. The locals welcomed the administration's initiative to stand by the helpless family.