Geneva Camp: Uneasy calm on surface, panic within
Fearing arrests and harassment, residents of Geneva Camp in the capital’s Mohammadpur area were panicking yesterday, a day after clashes with police.
The clashes erupted during a demonstration for free and uninterrupted power supply to the camp.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. The power supply, however, remained uninterrupted throughout yesterday, but most of the shops in the alleys, including the kebab and biriyani eateries, were found shut.
Police were deployed at the entrance to the camp.
Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, some Urdu-speaking people complained that police did excess during the raid following the running battles on Saturday.
They alleged that police indiscriminately charged truncheons on them, including women and children. The law enforcers also fired teargas and shotgun shells inside the camp.
Mohammad Akbar, 55, a rickshaw puller, showed this correspondent his injuries to his back and left eye.
“My entire body aches,” said Akbar.
He said he went to his daughter’s home to have lunch on Saturday.
“As soon as the raid began, I came out of the house, but was caught in the police truncheon charge. They beat me up inhumanly,” said Akbar, asking how he could pull the rickshaw now.
Noticing this correspondent, a woman also went there with her 18-year-old mentally-challenged son, who had a bandage on his head.
“See, this is my son. His name is Prince. You can ask 10 people here. All will say he is mentally-challenged. Police didn’t even spare him,” said the woman with tears rolling down her cheeks.
Seven-year-old Junayed was seen with shotgun pellet injuries on his forehead and 10-year-old Shoyeb on his right hand.
Over 50 people, including 15 policemen, were injured in the clashes between the Geneva Camp residents and police. The Urdu-speaking people alleged that the police action in the camp was aided by some ruling party men.
Refuting all the allegations, Anisur Rahman, deputy commissioner (Tejgaon division) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said, “We had been directed not to go after women and children. We took action against those involved in violence.”
Anisur said seven people were arrested in two cases following the incident.
The residents did not pay electricity bills worth Tk 33 crore to Dhaka Power Distribution Company, the police official said.
The camp is a densely-populated settlement of more than 40,000 people.
The residents had been experiencing frequent load shedding for the last 20 days.
They said different international agencies used to provide funds to the disaster management and relief ministry for paying the electricity bills.
But those organisations stopped the funding after they had been given national identity cards, said local Councillor Habibur Rahman Mizan on Saturday.
The Urdu-speaking people yesterday said they wanted a permanent solution to this.
“This can’t go on like this. When something happens, police come and pick up the innocent … Main culprits remain unpunished. We always live in fear,” said a resident.
Some Urdu-speaking people alleged that local representatives and camp leaders were just playing with their fate.
The office of Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee was found closed yesterday.
“We are poor and uneducated. We do what our leaders say. But in the end, we face all the hurdles … whenever anyone is arrested, his or her family has to bear all the costs to get him or her free. This has been going on for a long time,” said
Anwar Ali, a resident of the camp, adding that although they got NID cards, there was no change in their lives.
The camp residents said they wanted rehabilitation, which could help solve their problems.
They also sought the prime minister’s intervention.
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