People revolt to protect Arial Beel
The opposition BNP has given call for a countrywide hartal on February
7 to protest the case filed against the party chairperson and leader
of the Opposition Begum Khaleda Zia as a provocateur of the Arial Beel
uprising.
In the face of violent protest from local people against
construction of an international airport in Arial Beel of Munshiganj,
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said that no airport will be
built there against the will of the local people.
The case filed by president of Munshganj district Awami League (AL)
named Begum Zia as number one accused of the bloody incident in which
one policeman died, in addition to serious injuries to many policemen
and local people including photo journalists who went there to cover
the public protest.
The government's plan to construct the airport on cropland there
aggravated the situation in the ground. Any attempt to pass blame on
the opposition at this point may only backfire, critics say. Pointing
to last week's incident at Arial Beel they said it appears the
government is only adding to its own problems instead of working with
patience to keep the county's political landscape peaceful and
business friendly.
As is the case, the ruling party always accuses the opposition of
creating issues that aims at bringing destabilisation. But the latest
development shows that it is the government which itself is
destabilising by taking up controversial projects and wrong moves.
The case against Kheleda Zia as a lead accused for her so-called
role in instigating the Arial Beel people to break into revolt may
thus give BNP a new political weapon to beat the government.
MP Azim silenced in JS
As BNP is abstaining from Jatiya Sangsad (JS) sessions, the lone
opposition MP in the house Fazlul Azim, an independent lawmaker from
Noakhali, last week was silenced by deputy speaker Shawkat Ali as he
tried to speak on the bloody incident.
The ruling AL is using its brute majority not only to take
repressive step against the opposition but also in taking up
controversial projects. But it may ultimately hit back if they do not
exercise power properly from now onwards.
BNP and many other socio-political bodies have already condemned
the case against Khaleda Zia as a new provocation to the opposition.
Party leaders said local people at Arial Beel in the Srinagar Upazila
in Munshiganj joined the uprising to protect their land.
The government is planning to build a new airport there on their land.
News reports said people had spontaneously staged the protest in
which BNP chairperson or her party had no involvement. Even Jatiya
Party chairman and a member of ruling coalition HM Ershad has termed
it as a 'spontaneous uprising.' People believe that implicating Begum
Zia in the case is a condemnable act, it should not be part of
political culture. BNP leaders staged countrywide demonstration last
week and demanded immediate rescinding of the case.
As news broke out of the case in which Begum Zia has been
implicated along with three thousand co-accused persons for taking
part in the bloody incident, party workers and leaders took to the
street. Noisy demonstration last week spread fears in the street,
prompting police action and arrests.
Following the Arial Beel incident last week police have also filed
two other cases each with five to six thousand persons. Consequently,
male population in most villages is on the run while women have been
forced to come out to protect homes and property. It is only creating
distance between the government and local electorate.
At the centre of the agitation is a mega project to build a new
airport at Arial Beel area to be named after Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,
the father of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Under the project the government plans to acquire a total of 25,000
acres of land. People got panicked on the scale of the land
acquisition plan as local officials took up visible steps at field
level to start acquiring the land.
People of Arial Beel area from at least two dozen villages showed
their anger two weeks ago blocking the Dhaka-Mawa highway in Srinagar.
A violent fight ensued that time between police and local people to
continue over several hours bringing traffic movement through the
highway to a complete halt. Later on when a caravan of buses attempted
to move towards the city with the protestors on board it was stopped
and dispersed in the outskirt of Dhaka city.
However, a section of the protestors were able to sneak into the
city but they were at first booted out from the Muktangan public rally
point and later from in front of the Press Club by police as they
tried to speak out their case.
Frightened local people also held a human chain and demonstrated on
the highway early last month to start agitation against the airport
project to prompt police action to turn the protest action into a
bloody confrontation. However, a section of local Awami League
activists came out opposing the protest only to turn it into a bloody
incident.
HSJIA's capacity underutilised
Khaleda Zia criticised the government last week at a press
conference for police action on the mob saying Arial Beel airport
project is not at all necessary when the utilisation capacity of
Hazrat Shah Jalal International Airport (HSJIA) now stands only at 27
per cent. She asked the government better to expand the existing
airports and try to improve the level of their utilization. Such
projects may have been developed to serve corporate interest, he
suggested.
The ruling AL said last week's bloody uprising at Arial Beel was
BNP chairperson product. She had not only instigated local people by
denouncing the airport project, AL said, but also passed secret
instruction to that end.
While experts are at a loss to find the justification of the new
airport project when the country has so many other urgent projects,
the government is bent upon implementing it as the inspiration has
come from the head of the government. People wonder what is the haste
here, where is a feasibility report, and moreover, if the airport to
be built in a wetland would be able to sustain the heavy load impact.
This is a prime land good for crop cultivation. Why the government
is not moving with expert advice, experts wonder.
But the government is blaming critics such as BNP and other experts
for politically exploiting the issue and contributing to creating
tension and hostilities in the country. Moreover, BNP is out to
destabilize the country by prompting such turmoils in order to derail
the war crime trial, ruling party leaders said.
Even if it is not possible at Arial Beel, it would build it
elsewhere, they said at a time when criticism from all quarters is
pouring against the new airport project.
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/front.html#01
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