The tribal Christians accuse investigating agencies of protecting masterminds behind the mayhem in northern Gaibandha district
Hundreds of ethnic Santals take to the streets in the Gobindaganj area of Gaibandha district on Aug. 29, 2021, to demand the cancellation of a government plan for a special economic zone on their ancestral land. (Photo supplied)
Some 1,000 tribal people, a majority of them Christians, staged a three-hour protest in a northern Bangladesh district to demand justice for the 2016 police atrocities in their village, as a local court was slated to hear their petition.
"We have gathered to show our resolve to get justice,” said Philemon Baske, president of Sahebganj-Bagdafarm Bhumi Uddhar Sangram, a platform formed by the victims of police excesses on 2,000 Santals and 500 Bengali families over a dispute involving their ancestral lands acquired for setting up a state-owned sugar mill in the northern Gaibandha district.
“We will get it,” Baske asserted during the July 15 protest at Katamor in Gobindaganj, a subdistrict of Gaibandha.
Several Santal and Bengali leaders spoke on the occasion, accusing the government of protecting the masterminds behind the atrocities.
Most of the Santals, one of Bangladesh's oldest tribes, are Christian.
Accompanied by the children and elderly, the protesters gathered as a court in Gobindaganj was scheduled to hear their petition expressing doubts over the probe into the atrocities against them.
The court, however, did not hold its session on June 15.
“It is clear that the authorities are trying to prolong the trial to save some influential people,” alleged Rafique Ahamed Sherajee, a legal counsel for the victims.
The protesters are seeking a faster probe into the police excesses that claimed the lives of three people when Santal and Bengali families became the target of police on Nov. 6, 2016, as they tried to reclaim their ancestral land, which was acquired for setting up the Rangpur-Mohimaganj Sugar Mill some seven decades ago.
The government acquired over 1,842 acres on the condition that its owners could reclaim the land if the mill closed down.
The mill ceased its operations in 2004 but the state refused to keep its word, forcing the locals to resort to an agitation leading to the 2016 police atrocities.
The authorities are now trying to establish an export processing zone on the same land, prompting another round of protests by the locals.
After the victims filed a case on Nov 26, 2016, the initial probe by the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) took almost three years to submit a report on July 13, 2019.
On Sept. 2, 2019, the locals lodged no-confidence against the probe as the PBI report did not mention all the masterminds, including former lawmaker Abul Kalam Azad, Gobindaganj police officer Subrata Kumar, and the sugar mill's managing director Abdul Awal, among others.
The names of two policemen – Mahbubur Rahman and Sazzad Hossain, who were allegedly found guilty of setting fire to residential properties – were also excluded.
A second police probe was ordered on Dec. 23, 2019, and this time the mandate fell on the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which submitted the report on Nov. 2, 2020.
“The CID just copied what the PBI did,” said Sirajul Islam Babu, counsel for the victims.
Left with little choice, another no-confidence in the CID probe was lodged on Jan. 4, 2021, leading to prolonged court hearings.
Advocate Sherajee said that they would move the top court if a fresh impartial probe was not conducted soon.
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