Looters of roadside trees now threaten complainant, witness

Remains of tree trunks bear testimony to recent looting of a good number of trees beside Mostafi-Mondolerhat road at Monorom village in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila. Photo: STARRafique Sarker, Rangpur

Threatened by the accused in a case for looting roadside trees, the complainant and a witness of the case are staying away from their houses at Monorom village of Mohendranagar union under Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila about one and a half months.

The accused, mostly local union unit leaders and activists of the ruling Awami League, allegedly demanded Tk 20,000 from the families of Alam Badsha, the complainant, and Hannan Sarker, one of the witnesses.

They also looted fish from a pond of Hannan Sarker's family and took away a tube-well from their house yard.

On September 24, a group of AL activists of the village cut down a number of trees on both sides of Mostafi-Mondolerhat Road at Monorom village and took them away. Seeing the matter, Alam Badsha and Hannan Sarker of the village informed police.

“As Badsha informed police about the tree lifting, the culprits came to our house on September 26 and looked for him. Not finding him, they threatened me,” Badsha's father Abu Bakar Siddique said.

At dawn on October 1, the same group again felled some twenty roadside trees, took away tube-well from home yard of Hannan Sarker and looted fish from their pond, Badsha alleged.

Following a case filed by Alam Badsha with Lalmonirhat Police Station on October 2, police came to investigate the matter, inquired about the eyewitnesses and recovered some logs of the stolen trees from a pond.

Badsha filed two general diaries on October 10 and October 18 with Lalmonirhat Police Station seeking security for their family members but police is yet to take any action, he told this correspondent in Rangpur a few days ago.

"The accused and a few local Awami League leaders threatened me several times over cell phone to withdraw the case against them. I mentioned their names and cell phone numbers in the GDs," he said.

Contacted over cell phone, Lalmonirhat Police Station Officer-in-Charge Faizur Rahman said, "Relatives of the complainant and witnesses of the case several times informed me of threats from the accused. Police arrested four of the accused in the case. A few other accused could not be arrested as they disappeared when police went to the village."

On the other hand, Abu Bakar Siddique said, "After filing of the case, police arrested four people from the village but none of them are accused in the case."