e_Paper (11 November 2016)

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2 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2016 DT News ATTACKS ON MADARPUR COMMUNITY Betrayed and deceived, Santals lose • Nure Alam Durjoy and Tajul Islam Reza from Gaibandha Before being elected chairman of Sapmara union, he was involved in a popular movement advocating for the local indigenous Santal community’s claims over a land now controlled by a government sugar mill. On Sunday, the same man stood by and watched as police fired at the community and his followers set fire to their homes. The betrayed community is in shock after this 180-degree turnaround by the man they helped put in office. Shakil Ahmed Bulbul, the president of upazila Chhatra League and newly-elected Sapmara UP chairman in Gobindaganj upzila under Gaibandha district. The land in question was acquired by the then-East Pakistan government in 1962 for the mill. In 2014, some found that the contract for acquisition had been violated by the mill authority and a committee was formed to get the land back on that ground. Bulbul was named the president of this Shahebganj-Bagda Farm Bhumi Uddhar Songram [land recovery movement] Committee. Santals who have now fled to neighbouring villages, told the Dhaka Tribune that it was at the urging of Bulbul four months ago that they, along with some Bangalis, took to a 100 acre piece of the 1842.3 acre sugarcane farm and built 600 new homes. Not only the UP chairman, but local lawmaker Abul Kalam Azad too, gave them assurance that they would be stay beside the community in their struggle for land, some claimed. The burnt remains of those ‘Attack on Santals was planned’ • Syed Samiul Basher Anik The recent attack on a Santal community in Gobindaganj, Gaibandha was planned to evict them from their land, a citizens body said yesterday. After visiting the affected areas of Shahebganj-Bagda farm in Gobindaganj on Tuesday, members of Shahebganj-Bagda farm Bhumi Uddhar Sanghati Committee said Santals were victims of a joint attack carried out by ruling party leaders, local administration and police aiming to evict them from their land. The eight-member committee made the comment at a A man shows empty shells of the bullets fired by police on local Santal and Bangali people of Gobindaganj upazila, Gaibandha when they resisted an eviction drive. The photo was taken yesterday MEHEDI HASAN shanties have now been flattened down with a tractor machine. It began on Sunday with an attack, where Bulbul and Azad’s men press conference held at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity in the capital. “Although two Santal men – Shyamol Hembron and Mongol Madri – were killed in the illegal eviction drive led by police, they are refusing take the responsibility,” said Jyotirmoy Barua, convener of the committee. Three Santal men remain missing after police opened fire on the people on Sunday, he added. Local union parishad Chairman Shakil Akhand Bulbul and his musclemen, along with police and sugar mill manager Abdul Awal, attacked the Santals and Bangalis in a planned way under the guise of mill staff, according to the committee. “Prior to the attack, Bulbul instructed his goons to rob all the houses and spare no one,” Jyotirmoy claimed. The evicted Santal families are now living under the open sky while the government has yet to extend a helping hand, he added. took part, the Santals said. Police stood by as the men set fire to the homes. Later they also locked in a battle with the com- Shahebganj Bhumi Uddhar Sanghati Committee holds a press briefing at the Reporters Unity in Dhaka protesting the attacks on Santal Community in Gaibandha DHAKA TRIBUNE The committee called upon the government to launch a judicial probe into the incident. •
News 3 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2016 DT everything munity, which allegedly shot with bows and arrows at police and got shot at in return. Three men from the village have died so far from gunshot wounds. How the tables turned Bulbul contested the chairman position for Sapmara union parishad in March. The community says that it was after his polls victory that he turned against the Santals. In a UP with about 18,000 voters, the nearly 1,500 adults from the community were a certain vote bank for the aspiring politician. Even recently, in a rally at Shahebganj Bazar, MP Abul Kalam Azad gave assurance to the community that he would stand by their demands. But both the men were present to look on as the community was violently thrown out, not even given the chance to take their belongings. Rumila Kisku, one of the victims, told the Dhaka Tribune how she had lost her home and all her belongings in the fire. She has two children; one is in class nine and the other one in class two. “Did we not vote for them? How did they become chairman, MP? Are we not citizens of this country? Why does not the government look after us?” she exclaimed at one point. ‘Take what you can’ Victims alleged that the goons of MP Azad and Bulbul led the attack on the village. Those who spoke to the journalists were mostly women. Among Tractor tramples atrocity evidence • Nure Alam Durjoy from Gaibandha When the tractor finally stopped growling, its driver glancing back at the well-tilled patch of land; it would be hard for anyone to guess that this stretch of Madarpur village was teeming with people just five days ago. More than 2,000 people, mostly Santals, living in about 600 shanties in the remote village under Gaibandha’s Gobindaganj upazila. They were displaced after their houses were set afire on Sunday and Monday, allegedly by men loyal to local MP Abul Kalam Azad and Sapmara Union Chairman Shakil Ahmed Bulbul, in presence of police. Two Santal men were killed and three others were injured in clashes on Sunday when the residents No home, and now no education • Nure Alam Durjoy and Tajul Islam Reza from Gaibandha them were Taran Murmu, Mikai Murmu, Ajiran Begum and Rumana Begum, former residents of the village. “Police have filed a case against many of our men. They have run away for fear of arrest,” one of them said. They claimed that during Sunday’s attack there had been at least 4,000 people from nearby villages, policemen, sugar mill’s guards and goons working for the two politicians. They also named several people from Kothiabari, Rampura and Goalpara villages. Some said immediately before the attack, there was an announcement on a megaphone. “‘Take what you can,’ they said over the mike,” said Sri Ezekiel, one of the victims. The goons launched into the shanties looting everything they could. “There was nothing we could do when we saw a giant flame reaching out to the sky,” he said. Responding to the Dhaka Tribune’s queries, Bulbul admitted that he stood over the eviction of the villagers but denied any wrongdoing. “I resigned from the land recovery committee in January,” he said. “There is this man named Shahjahan Ali, who is the general secretary of that committee. He is the one who told the Santals to build homes in that land,” he added. “Besides, some organisations and leftist groups also had a hand in this,” Bulbul alleged. Abul Kalam Azad MP could not be reached for comments. • The future seems dark for young Santals of Madarpur. Driven out of their village by the police and local thugs, at least 60-70 children and youth from the community have stopped going to school for fear of assault. They also lost all their textbooks and study materials in the arson that burned all their homes to ground. Following a violent eviction carried out by local thugs watched over by policemen, which began on Sunday and continued intermittently till Monday, some 1,000 Santal families have run away from their homes and taken shelter in nearby villages. Children from the community are saying they fear they might be beaten up on their way to the school, or even in the schools. In a nearby village, one of our correspondents found Santal families sitting around in the yards of people who had given them shelter. Children were also there sitting by their elders. “We cannot go to school. We tried to go. They said: You are Santals. Why are you here? If we go to school they will beat us,” said Magdulina, a class-six student. “Our books were burnt there in the village. We do not even have anything to eat. Our parents are unfed too,” she said. There are 60-70 students in the community, most of whom go to the Sahebganj Farm Government Primary School. Some are college and university-level students. Workers of a sugar mill in Madarpur village under Gobindapur upazila, Gaibandha run a tractor on the land which, before Sunday, was home to several Santal families to trample the burnt remains of their houses to the ground. The photo was taken yesterday MEHEDI HASAN Archana, a class four student, said she wanted dearly to get back The picture shows a school attendance register of students. The school was not even spared from the wrath of men of lawmaker and chairman MEHEDI HASAN to school but could not because of the fear of violence. fought pitched battles with police, sugar mill staff, and men loyal to the MP and chairman. Victims said the tractor was brought in on Monday evening after their houses were set on fire to erase evidence that they lived there. On Wednesday noon, this correspondent saw a tractor – which, according to people supervising the operation, belonged to the Mahimaganj Sugar Mill – levelling the patch of land where the charred houses stood but left the surrounding area untouched. When asked why they were ploughing the area, the supervisors claimed that the land had been lying barren for a long time and declined to speak further. Several date and banana trees bore signs of the arson. Ansel Hembrom, one of the Santals who lived there, said the tractor had begun work in presence of police on Monday night. A barbed-wire fence was being put up to cut off the place. It was from here that the Pakistani government evicted 25 families in 1962 for setting up a sugar mill. Those evicted went on to settle in other parts of the country. A 1962 deal between Pakistan’s central and provincial governments had a clause that the land would be handed over to the previous owners if it was used for other purposes. The sugar mill stopped production in 2004 but the land was leased allegedly to local politicians and affluent people. Some of those families returned to lay claim to the land. They built makeshift houses there in July. • Medi Soren, a honors second year student, said he could not imagine that this sort of torture would descend upon him and his neighbours. An SSC candidate said: “I have exams soon and I am wondering whether I will be able to sit for the exam. I have no home now, where am I going to study?” Sahebganj Farm school’s Headmaster Abdul Baki said none of his Santal students had been to the school since the incident. He said he had spoken to some of the parents and heard that the students were afraid to come to the school. Five days ago, the community was living in a long line of shanties, nearly 600, built four months ago. Now the place is a flat piece of land, darkened with ash. •
Page 1: SECOND EDITION FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11,
Page 5 and 6: News 5 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2016 CL
Page 7 and 8: News 7 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2016 DT
Page 9 and 10: World Farmer suicide, banks call in
Page 11 and 12: World 11 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2016
Page 13 and 14: Business 13 Investors exuberant as
Page 15 and 16: Economists see pain, then gain for
Page 17 and 18: Feature 17 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 201
Page 19 and 20: Biz Info 19 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 20
Page 21 and 22: The dead end of history Opinion 21
Page 23 and 24: Opinion 23 DT FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11,
Page 25 and 26: Advertisement 25 Dhaka Tribune FRID
Page 27 and 28: Sport 27 DT FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 20
Page 29 and 30: Downtime 29 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 20
Page 31 and 32: Showtime Shakib meets Shakib 31 FRI

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