Bangalee youth was killed while attacking Santal man
A Bangalee youth, who was killed in last month's clash with Santal people in Dinajpur, was an attacker shot by an arrow the indigenous archers fired in self-defence, a parliamentary caucus said yesterday, revealing the findings of its visit to the scene on February 2.
Shafiul Haq Shohag, 30, was shot while attacking Rakib Soren, a Santal man, with a knife, the team told a press conference at the capital's Jatiya Press Club.
The fight of January 24 broke out, at Chirakutipara village in Parbatipur, when Shohag and his father Jahirul Haq and several others were resisted by the Santals in the former's move to forcibly occupy their cultivable land, said the team.
One of the team members, Prof Mesbah Kamal, said that although 19 Santal people were arrested over Shohag's death following the clash, several thousand Bangalees later attacked the Santal village and burnt down eight houses, vandalised others, uprooted tube-wells, looted food grains, cattle, and burnt documents and books.
As males of the village, where 55 Santal families live, fled home to evade arrest, those staying back especially women and children were mercilessly beaten up, he said.
“The people responsible for Shohag's death should be prosecuted. But those who attacked and rampaged through the village should not be spared,” said Prof Mesbah.
Speaking on the occasion, Oikya NAP President Pankaj Bhattacharya said the local administration often played an implicit role in the atrocities against indigenous people. “If we want to make the country safe for Adivasis, those officials should be brought to justice too.”
Stating that most of the atrocities are centred on land issues, other speakers stressed the need for a land commission for plain land indigenous people and a new land dispute resolution law.
Convener of the caucus on indigenous affairs Fazle Hossain Badsha said the repeated attacks on the minorities proved that the values of liberation had been lost.
Meanwhile, Pankaj Bhattacharya slammed the recent government order banning Bangladeshi and foreign individuals or organisations meeting and talking unsupervised with indigenous people of the three hill districts.
“We have not seen such orders even in the pre-Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord era,” he said.
Amidst public outcry, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan told BBC Bangla Radio yesterday that the government might “reconsider the order.” But he did not specify when.
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