A third gender family filed a case against a group of village arbitrators who they claimed forced them to leave their inherited house at Charghatina village in Sirajganj's Ullapara upazila.

The family filed the case against 11 local arbitrators with Ullapara Police Station yesterday.

Police arrested two arbitrators -- Montu Alom and Meser Ali -- in connection with the incident.

One of the complainants, Monirul Islam, 27, said, "Villagers dislike me. I often do not approach the locals. I always try to live within my [third gender] community.

"But the arbitrators got united and called a village arbitration on April 13, and they asked us to leave the village -- giving us an ultimatum of one month," Monirul said.

"They also beat up my brother Moznu Miah a couple of days ago," Monirul claimed.

Asked, Dipak Kumar, officer-in-charge of Ullapara Police Station, said that they were trying to arrest the other accused.

Ullapara Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Dewan Moudud Ahmed said the government has set up Ashrayan-2 project for 50 third gender people in Dhopkandi area in the upazila.

"When the government is working to give third gender people homes, village arbitrators have no right to forcibly displace them," he said.

The accused must be punished, the UNO added.