Grabbers eye land of Hindus in Patuakhali
Threatened by land grabbers, members of a few Hindu families at Pangashia village in Dumki upazila of Patuakhali district gather as this correspondent visit the area a couple of days ago. Photo: STAR
A few local influential people are allegedly grabbing land of four Hindu families at Pangshia village under Dumki upazila. They have already grabbed 0.60 acres of land of families of Meghnath Howlader, his brother Lalchand Howlader, uncle Kalachand Howlader and relative Ramchand Howlader. “An influential group led by Abdul Goni Khan has kept occupying our 0.60 acres of land for about 10 years. Sons of Goni Khan forcibly built a house on 0.16 acres of our paternal property. They are also looting crops from our 0.44 acres of land every year,” said Meghnath Howlader, 50, son of late Romesh Chandra Howlader. On several occasions, goons of the group beat up Meghnath as they did not agree to sell the land to them, he said. After Meghnath was beaten up for refusing to sell land to them on November 20 last year, his brother Lalchand Howlader filed a case against the group with Dumki police station but police are yet to take lawful action, he said. Meghnath's uncle Kalachand Howlader said, “They forced me to sell 0.10 acres of land only for Tk 25 thousand although its normal market price is about Tk 1 lakh.” Meghnath and Kalachand said 15 members of their families cannot even move freely in the area while their children are scared to go to their schools. The influential group is harassing them in different ways to make them leave the area to grab the land totally, they said. Denying the allegation, Babul Khan, son of Abdul Goni Khan, said, “Meghnath's father Romesh Chandra Howlader exchanged his 0.14 acres of land with my father's through verbal agreement. Accordingly, we gave them the land through deed but Meghnath is yet to hand over our part to us after the death of his father. So we took possession of our land anyhow.” Local union parishad Chairman Alamgir Hossain Sikder said, “Quarrel over land is going on for long between Goni Khan and the minority families. We asked both sides to settle the quarrel anyhow but to no effect.” Sub Inspector of Dumki police station Mizanur Rahman, also the investigation officer, said, “Both sides should have gone to the court as it is a civil matter. Lalchand filed a case with the police station regarding attack on Meghnath. We are preparing an investigation report that will be submitted to the court as soon as possible.” “We are ready to give legal help to minority families,” he added.
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