A brazen breach of contract engendered the crisis of over 1,000 families of indigenous Santal community. Following widespread looting and mass arrests in the latest flashpoint of a long standing land dispute, they were forced to abandon their houses in Gaibandha in northern Bangladesh when Shyamol Soren, a Santal, died after sustaining a bullet injury. A news report accompanied the photo of a person setting a house of the Santal community on fire in presence of at least 17 policemen on 06 November 2016.
The mass exodus took place in Shahebganj-Bagda farm areas, which fall under the Rangpur Sugar Mill in Gobindaganj upazila of Gaibandha district. [Vide Dhaka Tribune, dated 07 November 2016].
Santals are one of the oldest and largest indigenous tribes in northwestern Bangladesh but in Gaibandha the community has been in a long dispute over land since the Rangpur Sugar Mill authorities started leasing plots for cultivation of rice and other crops. This violates the contract agreed under the then Pakistan government, which acquired 1,842 acres of land from Santals for the mill on the understanding that only sugar cane would be farmed there and the land would be returned to the original owners if it was used for any other purposes.
According to the indigenous community leaders, the mill authorities have been allowing tobacco and rice farming on the land “for years”. As the contract was violated, indigenous Santal people and some local Bengali people began four months ago to occupy around 100 acres of land, building makeshift houses there and demanding return of their lands that belonged to their forefathers.
“The mill opened on condition that the leasers will have to harvest at least 10 per cent as sugarcane while other products can be harvested in the remaining 90 per cent of the space. This was a violation of law,” said a source. Leases were reportedly given to local influential political and affluent people, including Katabari No.2 union chairman and the younger brother of former Member of Parliament.
After accepting a report in this regard from Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation, the High Court directed the authorities concerned to harvest paddy from another 15 acres of Rangpur Sugar Mills land within a fortnight for Santals in Gaibandha’s Gobindaganj as the crop was grown by them.
Unlike the Chakma Shanti Bahini guerrillas armed and trained by India who fought a protracted bloody war for over two decades with the nascent Bangladesh Army [Vide Terrorism in India’s North-east: A Gathering Storm, Volume 1, pp 552-3, by Col. Ved Parkash, Kalpaz Publications, August 2008, ISBN-10: 8178356600], the Santals are a peaceable people for centuries. So bottom line is that implementation of the original contract and due compensation to the aggrieved Santal families brook no delay.
Source: Weekly holiday
