The government high school for the hearing impaired is located in a part of the National Federation of the Deaf building in Bijoynagar of the capital city. This is no longer big enough to accommodate the increasing number of students. The government, accordingly, allocated a one-acre plot of land in Lalbagh in 2005 for the school to be relocated.
However, the authorities could not set up the school there as the Dhaka-7 member of parliament Haji Salim has occupied the land. This had hampered the education programme for the speech and hearing impaired.
The school has 350 students with speech and hearing impairments. According to the school authorities, all the hearing and speech impaired persons in the country depend on this school. The government in 2005 allotted this acre of land to the school for a token price of Tk 500,000. The land was registered in the name of the school and the school authorities have been paying taxes for the land since then.
Headmaster of the Dhaka Badhir High School (the government school for the hearing impaired), Aminul Islam, said that within a few days of the land being handed over, Haji Salim forcefully occupied it. The district administration was informed of the matter and once in 2006 and then again in 2007, the land was handed over again to the school authorities. But every time Haji Salim simply grabbed it again. Several meetings were held with Haji Salim about this, but to no avail.
A visit to the spot on Thursday revealed that this plot is adjacent to the embankment at Sowarighat. There is a petrol pump, Madina Filling Station, on the plot. This filling station belongs to Haji Salim’s Madina Group. Alongside the filling station is a workshop and car servicing outlet. There is no signboard of the school anywhere there.
The local people say that the filling station was set up around 2007-08. This originally was low lying marshy khas land, the people said.
When asked about the case, the school’s headmaster Aminul Islam told Prothom Alo, the case was filed on behalf of Haji Salim with forged papers and the court dismissed it.
A case was filed against Haji Salim’s son Erfan Salim for assaulting a naval officer on Sunday night. RAB then raided Haji Salim’s house in Lalbagh. Erfan Salim and his bodyguard were arrested.
Since then various accounts of forced occupation by Haji Salim and his family have been emerging. Agrani Bank authorities on Monday recovered land which had been grabbed by Haji Salim in Old Dhaka’s Maulvibazar.
The detective branch (DB) of police has begun interrogating Erfan Salim and his bodyguard. Police of the Chawkbazar police station has sought 14 days’ remand for the two accused in an arms and liquor case. The hearing of this appeal will take place on Sunday.
Students of Jagannath University held a human chain demonstration in front of the university on Thursday, demanding that the Tibet Hall be recovered from Haji Salim. At the programme organised under the banner of ‘General Students of Jagganath University’, it was said that the member of parliament Haji Salim had forcefully occupied the residential hall next to Ahsan Manzil for over two decades. They demanded that it be retrieved from his control.
‘Smear campaign’ against Haji Salim’s family
A forum of Old Dhaka businessmen have alleged that a smear campaign is being carried out against Haji Salim’s family. At a programme organised by the ‘Byabshayee Oikya Forum’, speakers said that Haji Salim always stood beside them in difficult times.
The forum’s general secretary Abu Motaleb told Prothom Alo, the various reports of misdeeds by Haji Salim and his family were fabricated. In a written statement, he said Haji Salim’s Madina Group was a reputed establishment, providing employment to around 3,500 people.
