A group of prominent citizens have called for punishing those involved in the attack on Santals during an eviction drive by the local administration in Gaibandha’s Gobindaganj.
The group briefed the media in Dhaka under the banner of “Socheton Nagorik” on Saturday after their visit to the affected areas.
Pangkaj Bhatyacharya, Syed Abul Maksud, Dr Abul Barakat and Khushi Kabir spoke at the briefing while Sanjib Drong presented the keynote paper.
On November 6, Gobindaganj upazila administration evicted around 600 Santal families from their ancestral land in Sahebganj-Bagda Sugar Mill area.
Three Santals were killed and several others were injured in the clash. A fourth Santal victim’s body was found later.
A seven-point charter of demands unveiled at Saturday’s briefing include judicial investigation into the incident, punishment of those involved and compensating the victims.
The eviction was carried out by police, RAB and BGB members who were joined by people allegedly loyal to the local MP.
After the incident, police filed cases against the Santals for obstructing the law enforcers from carrying out their duty.
Citizens demand punishment for attackers of Santals

They live maintaining the harmony of the eco-system. They do not think of themselves as superior to all other species on Earth. But paradoxically, the so-called underprivileged, uncivilised people have proven themselves superior to the educated

Socheton Nagorik, a platform of civil society members, yesterday alleged that ruling party lawmaker Abul Kalam Azad had taken part in the November 6 attack on Gaibandha’s Santal community.
“Local MP Abul Kalam Azad a year back assured the Santals of peaceful solution to their land dispute, but he finally took part in the attack on them directly,” writer and columnist Syed Abul Maksud said at the press conference at the Dhaka Reporters Unity in the capital.
The same allegation came from the affected Santals. In a meeting with top AL leaders on November 16 at the party’s Dhanmondi office in Dhaka, Jatiya Adibasi Parishad President Rabindranath Soren told AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader how the lawmaker and UP Chairman Shakil Ahmed instigated the premeditated attack.
In that meeting, Soren told Obaidul: “Police opened fire in the presence of local MP and the chairman. MP Azad ordered the police to open fire through a hand mike. We can submit the evidence, if needed. We have VDO footages and still photos as proofs. And when we went to police station to file a case, the police did not take our case. On the contrary, the police after shooting us filed a case against 200-300 persons naming 42 including the dead.”
Abul Maksud yesterday said: “This is not a way to evict anyone from his land. They could have talked to the Santals; police could have arrested some Santals, if needed; but they resorted to shooting indiscriminately to kill the poor Santals.”
He said that the police, local administration and local public representatives acted like the Pakistani occupational forces of 1971 and a group of hired goons acted as their auxiliary force during the attack.

Judicial probe, compensation demanded

Speakers at the briefing also urged the government to form a judicial inquiry committee to probe into the bloody attack that left three Santals dead and over 30 injured.
Some 2,000 Santals were evicted from 15 villages on that day, and the Bangalis who joined hands with the law enforcers looted valuables of the houses before burning them to ashes.
They demanded that the government provide compensation and ensure security of the displaced Santal families so that they can return to their homes and start normal life.
“The government must take responsibility for the treatment of the injured. Those who have violated human rights must be tried and, above all, the rights of the security of the indigenous people must be ensured,” Prof Abul Barkat, an economist, said at the press conference.
Barkat said: “The false cases filed against the victim Santals must be withdrawn and the local administrative officials involved in the attacks, carried out in name of eviction drive, have to be removed too.”
Police even handcuffed three Santals while undergoing treatment at hospitals, an act that created massive outrage.
On November 17, after a case was filed by a Santal, following Obaidul Quader’s instructions to Gaibandha police to take Santals’ case, Jatiya Adivasi Parishad President Rabindranath Soren told the Dhaka Tribune that the case had not been filed on behalf of the affected Santals. Police tactfully made a Santal, living outside Madarpur and Joypurpara, file the case to save the real culprits. The plaintiff was not affected during the drive.
The group of citizens visited Gobindaganj upazila’s Sahebganj-Bagda Farm area and Madarpur village on November 13, and talked to the displaced Santals, living under the open sky without proper access to food and water.
After the incident, police filed five cases against the Santals for obstructing the law enforcers from carrying out their duties. A fresh case was filed against them yesterday over the arson attack on a sugarcane field in the area.
Prof Barkat said: “Of the 5,500 acres of land there, some 4,500 acres belong to the Santals. The government proposal for establishing a special economic zone on this land is defective. As per the preconditions, an economic zone is not supposed to be built on a land that produces multi crops. Besides, there must be a national highway within 10 kilometers of the zone and navigable river.”
Among others, Coordinator of Nijera Kori Khushi Kabir also spoke at the briefing while Sanjib Drong, general secretary of Bangladesh Adivasi Forum, presented the keynote paper.

‘I want Santals ousted, not solution’

Oikya NAP President Pangkaj Bhatyacharya said: “I talked to Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu seeking a solution over the land issue. But, unfortunately, the minister said that he only wanted the Santals to be ousted, no solution.”
Talking to media, Amu also alleged that a vested interest group wanted to grab the government land using the Santals.
A similar comment came from PM’s Special Envoy and Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad, who said that evicting the Santals from the land had been nothing wrong.
Parliamentary watchdog rejects Azad’s account
Meanwhile, the parliamentary standing committee on the home affairs ministry Thursday rejected an explanation of MP Azad over the violent attacks on Gaibandha’s minority Santal community.
The parliamentary watchdog also recommended the government resolving the ongoing problems at Santal villages, said meeting sources.
The committee asked Azad to explain the incident. In reply, Azad held the local chairman and Santals responsible for the incident.
Rejecting the explanation, committee chairman Tipu Munshi said, “Being the local lawmaker, you cannot avoid the responsibility for the incident.”
Asked, Azad told reporters: “A move is going on to make me responsible for the attack. An anti-Awami League force was involved in the attack.”
‘MP Azad took part in attack’

Another body of a Santal member was found yesterday following a clash over a land dispute on Sunday as the ethnic minority people protested what they called the grabbing of their land by a sugar mill authorities.
Police recovered the body from a crop field of Baghda farm area under Rangpur Sugar mill at Gobindaganj in Gaibandha.
The deceased was identified as Mongol Madri (50), son of Jetha Madri from Dandupur village under Ghoraghat Upazila in Dinajpur, Subrata Kumar Sarkar, officer-in-charge of Gobindaganj Police Station said.
“Locals spotted the body at around 11pm on Monday in a sugarcane field under Baghda farm area. Being informed, police recovered the body and sent it to Gaibandha Sadar Hospital for an autopsy,” he said.
The body was later handed over to the family members of the deceased.
The OC also said they had arrested three indigenous people – Dijen Tutu, Choron Soren and Bimol Kishku – on Monday while they were undergoing treatment at Rangpur Medical College Hospital.

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Also read- Rangpur sugar mill clash: 1 Santal dies, 1,000 families flee

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Another Majhiya Hembrom was arrested from Gobindaganj yesterday.
On Sunday, a clash took place after Santals of Sahebganj-Baghda farm in Gaibandha chased a group of Rangpur Sugar Mill staff who came to harvest sugarcane in sugar mill’s plantation area.
A Santal man – Shyamal Soren – was killed and 30 others were injured in the clash between sugar mill workers and protesters while over 1,000 families left their homesteads after looting and mass arrest drives.
Although three days have passed since the clash took place, the government basically did nothing to protect the ethnic minority people, the indigenous leaders alleged.
Shahebganj-Baghda Farm Bhumi Uddhar Songram Committee’s Vice-President Philimon Baske said: “Our people are living in fear and anxiety as the local toughs of lawmaker and chairman including Chhatra League were flexing their muscles.”
The weapon-wielding goons are roaming around threatening Santal community people with dire consequence, he said.
Members of Santal community in exchange for anonymity alleged that law enforcers were siding with local MP, chairman and sugar mill authorities.
The attackers torched a number of houses and establishments of Santal community in presence of policemen, they claimed.

“Although the land dispute is between the mill authorities and the Santal community people parliament member Abul Kalam Azad and 5 No Shapmara Union Chairman Shakil Aknd Bulbul’s men are launching attacks on us to evict us from the land with the help of police,” Philimon Baske told the Dhaka Tribune.
He also said four to five of their community members had remained missing since the clash erupted.
However, Police Super of Gaibandha M Ashraful Islam told the Dhaka Tribune that the situation was under control and policemen were deployed in and around the area to avert any untoward incident.

Mill authorities begins cultivation on Santal land

Meanwhile, the mill authorities have started cultivation in the sugarcane fields where the Santal-Bangali people had been living as of Sunday.
During a visit, Santals belonging to the area told this correspondent that the locals had set fire to their makeshift houses in presence of police on Sunday.
Tension is still running high in the area.

Contradictory remarks over relief distribution

Lawmaker of Gaibandha -4 constituency Abul Kalam Azad yesterday distributed 10 kg of rice and Tk500 to each of 50 families living in Santal villages – Madarpur and Joypurpara – of Khamarpur Bazar in Gobindaganj, reports our correspondent.
However, Philimon Baske told the Dhaka Tribune that they were offered relief but the Santal people rejected.
When asked, Gobindaganj Upazila Parishad Chairman Faruk Kabir Ahmed declined to comment on the matter and asked the correspondent to talk tothe local MP.
The mobile phone of  Gaibandha -4 constituency lawmaker Abul Kalam Azad was switched off as of filing of this report at 7:15pm.

Immediate arrest of perpetrators, killers of Shaymol demanded

Meanwhile, speakers at human chains in Dhaka and Gaibandha yesterday demanded immediate arrest and exemplary punishment of the perpetrators.
Jatiya Adibasi Parishad President Rabindranath Soren presided over the human chain in the capital where speakers called upon the government to return the land to the original owners.
Meanwhile, speakers at a protest programme held in Gaibandha city demanded immediate arrest of the killer of Shyamol Hembron.
Santals have long been in dispute over the land after the mill authorities started leasing out the land to locals for the cultivation of rice and other crops violating a contract.
The erstwhile Pakistan government acquired 1842 acres of land from Santals for the sugar mill authorities under a contract that only sugarcane could be cultivated there, they said.
Although the agreement stated that the land would be returned to the original owners if it is used for any other purposes, it did not happen in reality although the mill authorities have long been allowing tobacco and rice farming for years on the land.
According to the leaders of ethnic minority people as the contract was violated four months ago indigenous Santal people and some Bengali locals occupied around 100 acres of land, building makeshift houses there, and demanded return of their lands that belonged to their forefathers.
Sugar Mill clash: Another Santal dead