Land grabbers destroy madrasa houses

The land of Bowdubi Rabeya Khatun Hafizia Madrasa at Bowdubi bazaar under Zianagar upazila in the district has been occupied by some people claiming to be the owners of the land.

The madrasa is situated in front of a temporary police outpost, which is housed at the Parerhaat Union Parishad building.

Students of the madrasa and locals said 50-60 youths, mostly Chhatra League men and activists armed with sharp weapons, entered the madrasa campus at around 9:00am yesterday when around 150 students were attending classes. 

The youths were led by a few people who claimed to be the owners of the land.

After chasing the students away, they vandalised the two wooden houses of the madrasa and began to build a boundary wall around the 27 decimals land of the madrasa.

Students and locals alleged that at that time, Md Mizanul Haque, officer-in-charge (OC) of Zianagar Police Station was present with some of his force.

Denying the allegation, the OC said that after hearing the news of vandalising of the madrasa, he rushed to the spot and stopped the construction work of the boundary.

But when this correspondent along with some other newsmen visited the spot yesterday noon, they found that the construction work was going on. Police stopped the construction work at around 2:45pm. 

A madrasa source said there are around 500 students there. During the attack, Md Amirul Islam, superintendent of the madrasa, left the scene for fear of being attacked. He said he was feeling insecure in the area.

Amirul said over cell phone that the madrasa authorities had bought the land from Al Amin and Mofizul, sons of Shahjahan Sardar.

"The madrasa authority has the deed and also deed of gifts of the disputed land. The attackers have occupied it illegally," said Md Anwar Hossain, former secretary of the madrasa.

"Locals will not tolerate occupation of the madrasa land if proper steps are not taken against the occupation," said seventy years old Ohidul Alam Talukder. "Hundreds of students are learning Quran in this madrasa," he added.

"The attackers have occupied the land illegally. As a case is pending with the court, the court will decide who is the legal owner of the land," said Md Shah Alam, president of the managing committee of the madrasa and also the chairman of Parerhaat UP.

He also alleged that the administration is playing a silent role and did not take any step to save the wooden houses of the madrasa. 

"We have stopped the construction work of the wall after getting information," said Md Walid Hossain, superintendent of police (SP) in Pirojpur.