<i>Five families flee homesteads for fear of 'ghosts'</i>
Five Hindu families of Yakubpur village in Salondar union under Thakurgaon Sadar upazila have left their ancestral home in fear of what they said ghostly goings-on.
Following suggestions from a few fortune-tellers, they removed 20 rooms of their adjoining houses in a day and set up new dwellings at different places of the same village last month.
During a visit to the area on April 7, this correspondent saw the emptied courtyard that showed signs of being used as dwellings by a few families only a couple of weeks ago.
"During the last two years, we faced a series of spooky events," said Narayan Roy, whose forefathers had been residing in the house for over 150 years.
"My wife Surabala Roy fell sick and she had to undergo two operations for appendicitis and eye. Then two cows and four goats died in last February. Surabala also saw ghosts walking on the courtyard during amabashya (the last day of the dark fortnight) and purnima (full moon).
"I went to fortune-tellers including Kokan Roy of Chaturakhor village and Ananda Sen of Dewgaon village under Sadar upazila for solution. Following their advice, we left our home and built new houses at different places in the same village last month. Now we feel better than before," he said.
The families of Narayan Roy, Khogeshwar Roy, Kalipada Barman, Dhaneshwar Barman and Harani Barman left the place after repeated suggestions from the so-called fortune-tellers, said Bhabesh Chandra, a teacher of Kashalbari High School, and a neighbour of the families.
Contacted, 'fortune-teller' Ananda Sen, said, "The place is not good for their dwelling as three land demarcation lines meet there."
Fazle Elahi Chowdhury, chairman of Salondar union parishad, said, "After coming to know the matter from Sadar upazila nirbahi officer, I along with him visited the spot and came to know that the families left their houses as 'fortune-tellers' created misgivings in their minds. So far as I know the families have no enmity with their neighbours."
Gopal Chakrabarty, officer in charge of Sadar police station, said they are investigating whether any other factor led the five families to leave their ancestral home.
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