An aggrieved tribal Catholic said the henchmen of ruling Awami League’s Shibli Sadique also issued death threats
An indigenous man holding a placard demanding resolution of their land issues, in Dhaka on Aug. 19. (Photo: Stephan Uttom/UCA News)
A ruling party lawmaker in Bangladesh has been accused of grabbing land belonging to the indigenous Santal tribe people.
Members of the tribe organized a human chain in front of the Press Club in Dinajpur district in northern Bangladesh on Aug. 24 to protest against Awami League parliamentarian Shibli Sadique who represents the Dinajpur-6 constituency of the National Assembly.
The Santals accused Sadique and his relative of having grabbed a total of 8,600 decimal (about 86 acres) of land from its rightful owners.
An aggrieved Ukil Hembrom, 31, told UCA News: “Shibli Sadique and his uncle took about 2050 decimal of land belonging to me and my relatives and built a recreation park named ‘Shopno Puri’ (Dream Land) there.”
Speaking on the phone, Hembrom, who is a Catholic, said the parliamentarian’s henchmen were threatening them with death for protesting in public.
This is not the first incident of land belonging to the Santals being grabbed or encroached upon by powerful people.
Advocate Probhat Tudu, secretary of Uttor Banga Adivasi Forum (North Bengal Indigenous Forum), told UCA News that instead of doing them justice, the indigenous people are pressurized into submission by registering false cases of murders and rapes.
“The country is in such a state that nothing happens here without the order of the prime minister. I think if the PM wants to fix the land problem she can. But it is her government which is causing the problem,” Tudu told UCA News.
The problem of land grabs by politically influential people is not new, said Father Anthony Sen, secretary of the Justice and Peace Commission of Dinajpur Diocese, which has 62,000 Catholics, an overwhelming majority of whom are tribal people.
“There is no solution to the current state of affairs in the country. We have filed lawsuits in the hope of justice but they’re pending [in courts] for years with no verdict in sight,” Father Sen told UCA News.
Father Sen said the indigenous tribes in Bangladesh will have to unite for seeking timely justice.
“The Church cannot offer any assistance as we also have some financial limitations,” Father Sen added.
Sadique did not respond to attempts by UCA News to reach him by phone but told the national English daily, Daily Star, that someone within his party was conspiring to tarnish his publish image.
“No land has been grabbed. I will file a defamation suit against those who accused me of land grab,” Sadique told the Daily Star.
