Please - Odhikar

However, six of them were held by the people of the island. The agitated people snatched three
rifles from their possession. When informed of the incident, a squad of police led by Sub-
Inspector Farooq, the Officer-in-charge of Gajaria Char Camp, reached the spot and rescued the
guards from the people. At that time there was a scuffle that left SI Farooq and the coastguards
injured. However, the police rescued them and took them to the camp. The Officer-in-charge of
Ramgati Police Station, M. Khorshed Alam and the Thana (local government) Executive Officer
Humayan Kabir Khandaker visited the spot and brought the situation under control by assuring
the people of justice through fair investigation. The injured members of the coastguard were
transferred from Gajaria police camp to Ramgati police station.
The homeless people evacuated from Uttar Char Gajaria, when it was engulfed by the river
Meghna, took shelter in Telirchar. The government offered no support or assistance to them.
During the regime of the last Awami League Government some shelters were built on the island
for the homeless people who became homeless due to river-bank erosion. They began to live a
very miserable life on public lands. The island is under the jurisdiction of the Forest Department.
However, it is alleged that the Union Parishad (local government) Chairman, Abdur Rab has
control over everything in this island. It is said that the Chairman gave shelter to the riverbank
erosion victims on this island because he is the chairman of Dakshinchar Gajaria. A "bazar"
(small market) of Telirchar has been named after him. The area of the island is about 15 square
miles. The inhabitants said that there are more than 5000 households there. The chairman forces
every household to give him a large amount of money as extortion which may vary from Taka
200 to 500, based on the economic condition of a particular household/family. What is more
deplorable is that the staff of the Forest Department very often invade the households of the
distressed people and cause a lot of damage. It is alleged that they even set fire to their houses.
When asked about why the Forest Department staff behaved this way, the island people said that
the Forest Department staff harass them by bringing false allegations of felling trees from the
forest against them. According to the residents, the fact was that the timber smugglers from
Bhola and its neighboring areas used to fell trees and take them away in connivance with the
forest guards. Contrarily, the blame was put on the inhabitants of the island.
A case (number 7, dated 13.2.05) regarding the incident was filed with Ramgati Police Station
by the coast guards bringing allegation against unidentified 60 or 70 people of Telirchar. The
case was filed under the Sections 341/342/332/333/353/379/302 of the Penal Code. The incident
stated in the FIR does not match what allegedly happened. The complainant of the case,
Shahidul Islam who is the Zonal Commander of the coastguard has made a fabricated FIR of the
incident to divert the real incident to a different course. What is stated in the FIR is that acting
on a tip off, when he approached Telirchar with a 24 member squad of coastguards and forest
guards to arrest the sea-robbers who where staying at Teleirchar, as reported, they (the sea
robbers) sensed their presence and started fleeing with an engine boat. They asked the robbers to
halt but they shot at them in return. When members of the coastguard chased the sea robbers,
they ran through the canal of Telirchar and reached Chariman Bazar. When the coastguards and
the forest guards approached Chariman Bazar, the robbers lying in wait for them attacked them
with machetes. The coastguards retaliated by shooting in the air. The robbers then hit the
complainant's head with a knife, causing him to fall into water. Then they fired bullets to defend
them, killing two people. At that time the robbers snatched three arms from them, loaded
themselves with three magazines and kept firing. Fortunately, the bullets missed them and hit
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