Solidarity for Khasis' rights getting louder
Human and social rights activists in the capital are raising their voice protesting the bar imposed by the Jhimai tea estate authorities two weeks ago on the Khasi community in Moulvibazar's Kulaura upazila from using a government road through the tea garden.
They say this, carried out seemingly with the local administration's silent support, was a conspiracy to evict from their ancestral land the nearly 1,400 people of 72 Khasi families who use the road to go to markets or bring back goods.
The Khasi community has now been stranded in their five villages, Puran Choilta, Balaima, Amuli, Kalapahar (Notun Chilta) and Jhimai Punjee.
The restriction is the result of a disagreement between the Khasi people and the tea garden authorities over ownership of 300 acres of land, locals said.
The tea estate was given 672 acres of land in 1937 by the then government but they planted only on some 300 acres.
The Khasi people claimed the land as they have been for years living there and using the land for betel leaf cultivation, which was their main income source, while the tea garden authorities claimed that the Khasi people grabbed 300 acres of land.
Nine human rights organisations formed a human chain and organised a rally in front of the capital's Jatiya Press Club yesterday demanding withdrawal of the restriction and an order to fell trees in the area.
The organisations were Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon (Bapa), Ain o Salish Kendra, Bangladesh Adivasi Forum, Nijera Kori, Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association, Association for Land Reforms and Development, Green Voice, Khasi Students Union, and Kapaeeng Foundation.
Stating that a government official had gone to evict Jhimai Punjee's residents, Bangladesh Adivasi Forum General Secretary Sanjeeb Drong said he did not know under which authority or law had the public servant “tried to grab indigenous people's lands on behalf of a tea estate”.
Right to land, development and culture are indigenous people's basic human rights. “We search for the state to protect indigenous people's rights but we do not find it,” he added.
Prof Mesbah Kamal of Dhaka University said the eviction effort was part of a larger plan to displace indigenous people from their land.
“Holders of foreign and local looters' capital violate customary rights of indigenous people by grabbing their lands to control them. The state is responsible for protecting their rights. However, it does not come up to help the indigenous people,” he added.
He urged the activists of non-communal movements to stand beside the indigenous people. Prof Farida Khan of University of Wisconsin, USA and Bapa Joint Secretary Sharif Jamil also spoke.
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