Thieves are thieves, they never belong to party
14 trees fell for fund to observe mourning day!
Men allegedly belonging to the ruling party stole 14 matured trees from beside Singhasholepur-Mirzapur road in Singhasholpur union under Narail Sadar upazila on August 11 night.
The trees worth over Tk 1 lakh belonged to villagers who participated in a social forestation programme run by the Narail branch of NGO Proshika.
Several villagers alleged that prior to cutting the trees, union Awami League organizing secretary Ashok Kumar Biswas and UP member Nazrul Islam told them that they needed to procure funds by selling the trees to observe 35th death anniversary of the father of the nation.
"The beneficiaries of our forestation programme informed me that union Awami League organizing secretary Ashok Kumar Biswas and UP member Nazrul Islam cut down the trees," said Proshika district coordinator Komol Krisna Bala.
Proshika officials, however, refused to answer why they did not file a case or officially inform the police about the stealing of 14 trees.
On information from the locals, police on Friday morning foiled a bid to steal more trees. But before the law enforcers arrived, the thieves hastily left the scene with a tree. The police recovered a freshly chopped tree and filed a case implicating five villagers with the incident.
"I had heard about the theft on August 11. Villagers informed me that some Awami League activists stole the trees in the dead of night," said Singhasholpur UP Chairman Md Khairuzzaman Khair.
Asked about the matter, both Ashok Kumar Biswas and Nazrul Islam denied their involvement in the tree theft.
Union Awami League General Secretary Shahidul Islam said that Narail upazila Awami League committee has already been informed about the theft and alleged involvement of some party activists in it.
"Stern organisational action will be taken if it is proved that any of our activists are involved in the theft," upazila Awami League General Secretary Achin Kumar Chakroborty said.
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