| Juba League men cut off
intra-party rival’s arm
Our Correspondent . Kurigram A group of activists of the ruling party’s youth front Jubo League cut off an arm of their intra-party rival at Kathalbari in Kurigram sadar on Tuesday late night, said the police and the family of the victim.
A critically injured Uzzal, 21, was shifted to Rangpur Medical College Hospital for better treatment after he had been admitted to Kurigram Sadar Hospital.
Some Jubo League cadres called Ujjal to Kathalbari Girls High School ground at around 11.00 pm on Tuesday and beat up him mercilessly, according to his family. At one stage, the attackers hit with a sharp weapon Ujjal’s right arm which immediately got separated from the body.
The officer-in-charge of the Kurigram sadar police, Taharul Islam, admitted the incident, which, he said, might have occurred as a sequel to previous enmity among the activists of the same group.
Local sources said Ujjal was involved in cutting the ear of one of Hemal group in Kanthalbari area a year ago.
The Hemal group now engaged other activists of the party to cut off the arm of Ujjal, the sources added.
No case in connection with the incident filed and none was arrested as yet. Ruling party men in spree of
grabbing minority people’s land
Staff Correspondent Religious minorities in Bangladesh remain subjected to repression by the ruling quarters which appear to be in a spree of grabbing their land, leaders of a coalition of religious minorities said.
The Hindu-Buddhist Christian Unity Council recorded 150 incidents of repression on minority people in different parts of the country in six months, the organisation’s general secretary Rana Das Gupta told New Age on Wednesday.
He said least three people were killed because of repression while many houses were burnt and families were driven out from their homesteads.
The assailants carried out attacks, looted valuables and tried to drive away families to take control of the land of minority communities. The minorities account for about 15 per cent of the country’s total population.
Incidents of arson and extortion were reported from some places. Most of the land grab incidents took place in Natore, Pirojpur, Chittagong, Narsingdi, Bagerhat, Bariasl, Manikganj, Tangail, Satkhira, Pabna, Manikganj and Munshiganj, according to the organisation report.
Many of the families are under constant threats by influential people, according to complaints lodged with police stations.
‘Politically powerful quarters are involved in most of the case of repression and there has been hardly any remedy,’ Rana said, adding that the administration did not care much about the cases if ruling quarters were involved in the incidents.
The police carry out investigation only of the cases having no direct involvement of political quarters, he said.
‘We have been witnessing repression on minority communities for a long time. During the previous regime, it was a minority cleansing and now we see ruling party activists in a land grabbing spree,’ the organisation secretary said.
The president of the organisation, CR Dutta, also a veteran freedom fighter, said it was a fact that the minorities were repressed during the tenure of the present government.
‘We have informed the government of the atrocities. All should understand that the people do not take such persecution easily. The people responsible for such persecution will not be spared,’ he said, reminding the government of its electoral pledge to ensure safety and security of the minority communities.
New Age correspondents from outside the capital said the activists of the ruling Awami League and its front organisations were mostly involved in such grabbing of or attempt to grab the land of the minorities.
Some of the complaints were sent to the Prime Minister’s Office seeking government’s intervention against such incidents.
The New Age correspondent in Natore said local Awami League activists were extorting money from the minority people, mostly belonging to the Hindu community.
On his failure to pay extortion money, Narayan Chandra, a resident of Natore, was forced to give his colour television set to the local goons at Lalpur. Another man, Bacchu, was forced to pay Tk.1.85 lakh he received by selling his property to a local government representative in the same upazila.
At Baraigram, ruling party activists set on the fire the house of a minority family as the family refused to withdraw a criminal case filed against the activists who chopped one of the family members, Pradip Kumar.
The correspondent in Khulna said four incidents of repression took place in the district after the Awami League-led government had assumed office in January 2009.
According to the Dumuria police, Kamalesh Mistri, a resident of the area, filed a case with the police on November 17, 2009 against 8 people alleging that his niece, Shampa Mistri, 15, had committed suicide on November 13, 2009 as some young men used to harass her on her way to and from school.
The family said most of the accused were activists of the Awami League and they had pressured the family to withdraw the case.
The investigation officer of the case, SI Golam Rasul, said he had submitted the final report on the case as the complainant was unwilling to proceed.
The homesteads of 14 Hindu families were levelled to the ground at Deuatala of Batiyaghata on November 24, 2009 by a group of musclemen, who were relatives of a local Awami League leader.
The family of Anil Maitra at Kotla of Dighalia in Khulna were attacked, the house was looted and five of the family were injured early April 15, 2010. Anil’s son Amrita Maitra reportedly protested at the harassment of a teenaged girl by a local Juba League man.
The Dighalia police said a case of robbery had been lodged in connection with the looting and attack on the family and the house.
The Khulna district and city units of Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Unity Council at a meeting in its temporary office
in Khulna on May 14, 2010, said brother of a Dumuria Awami League leader had recently set up a brickfield by encroaching on the land of a religious minority family at Dumuria.
In Bagerhat, at least three incidents of oppression on religious minorities were reported. The allegations are grabbing of 130 bighas of shrimp enclosure at Bakultala of Rampal by a local influential person in February, felling of 40 trees belonging to a Hindu family at Bandhkhali in the sadar upazila in March, and grabbing of the Arpara Bazar temple land in the sadar upazila in the second week of May 2010.
At Bamna in Barguna, schoolteacher Shyamal Chandra Karmaker said an influential quarter on May 26, 2010 had removed the boundary pillar and red flags put up on a court order demarcating his land.
In a petition filed with the Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Unity Council, a group of Hindu community people of Chitalmari in Bagerhat sought protection against repression by a group. They said more than 100 people had migrated from the vicinity after felling prey to repression by Surat Ali Sheikh and his men during the previous BNP-led alliance government. They said the same group hand changed its colour and committed atrocities on the minority people.
In Chittagong, failing to grab a piece of land of a Hindu family, a gang demanded Tk 5,000,000 from Manoj Kumar Barua in April 2010. As the land owner refused to pay the money, the gang attacked Barua’s house on Harish Dutta Lane.
A real-estate company has allegedly taken a project a piece of land of the Hindu community at Raujan. The residents of Pahartali union a year ago urged government steps against the project but there had hardly been any progress, the leaders of the community said.
In Munshiganj, a group has been out to grab 1.73 acres of land belonging to a temple used by 50 Hindu families at Dighirpar of Tongibari. A local Awami League leader has allegedly built five houses on the temple premises.
A minority community girl was abducted from her house at Sultanpur of Harirampur in Manikganj by a group of local goons in June 2006, the victim’s father said in an application filed with the home ministry.
The complainant said the goons had left the girl near a marshland after rape. The incident was reported to the local police station but the police were unwilling to extend cooperation while the accused continued to threaten the family asking not to take up the matter with court.
In June and July 2009, schoolteacher Akhil Chandra Saha in Rajshahi and businessman Suman Goala and a young man, Asish Sarker, in Jamalpur were killed by miscreants.
Repression of minority people
continues: CR Dutta
Abdullah Juberee and Moloy Saha  | The president of Bangladeshi Hindu-Bouddha-Christian Oikya Parishad, Chitta Ranjan Dutta is unhappy with the ruling Awami League’s treatment of the minority communities although it was their hard work that helped the party gain overwhelming majority in parliament.
‘I would like to say 90 per cent of us are supporters of the Awami League as it believes in four guiding principles of the state — secularism, democracy, socialism and nationalism. Now, I think the time has come for the Awami League to realise the situation and take our issues into consideration,’ Dutta said in an interview with New Age on Monday at his DOHS residence.
Dutta lamented the continued suffering of the minority people, even during the tenure in the Awami League-led government, and demanded ‘some action’ against the oppressive acts.
‘Lands of our people are being gabbed. Even the lands of the national temple Dhaleshwari Mandir has been occupied by giant corporate houses and multi-storey buildings are being erected there,’ he said.
‘We have told the prime minister about it, we told [the deputy leader of the house] Sajeda [Chowdhury] and they said they would look into the matter. They are not saying anything negative, but they have to show us some action,’ he added.
[ The full text of the interview is on Page OPed ]
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