Darul Adalat in shambles
Port city’s first colonial court building dilapidated due to lack of conservation
On a hilltop adjacent to Government Hazi Muhammad Mohsin College in Chattogram, stands an establishment from the British colonial era.
The two-storey building has unique architectural traits, incorporating elements from both Mughal and Western architecture. The three feet wide walls were made of brick lime mortars. There are sixteen rooms and two towers on the northeast and northwest corners of the building.
History suggests that it was the first-ever court building in the port city.
However, Darul Adalat, a building of much historical significance, has been left in a dilapidated state for around 20 years due to the lack of conservation.
The college authority declared the building risky in 2002 and stopped all academic and official activities from taking place in the building.
According to sources in Mohsin College, the building was used as the college library as well as the office of the college branch of Bangladesh National Cadet Core.
During a recent visit, this correspondent saw that the rooms and the entrances of staircases were sealed off, while weeds took over the abandoned building, with the plasters falling off.
There is a divisional museum in every division except for Chattogram. The building can be used for that purpose as well.
Maimun Uddin, a graduate student at Government Hazi Mohammad Mohsin College, said visitors often come to see the site but they cannot enter the building.
"It is a historical site and it should be protected by the state," he said.
Some students from Chittagong University came to visit the site but they expressed their frustration over the sorry state of the building.
It was known that officials of the Department of Archeology (DoA) in Chattogram visited the site in 2013 and wrote to the DoA director general to protect the site, declaring it a heritage.
However, no initiative has been taken to that effect yet.
Contacted, Dr Md Ataur Rahman, a former regional director of DoA, Chattogram, said, "I visited the site when I was the regional director in 2019 and submitted a report to the head office with a recommendation to protect the building."
"There is a divisional museum in every division except for Chattogram. The building can be used for that purpose as well," he added.
Contacted, Prof Kamrul Islam, principal of Government Hazi Muhammad Mohsin College, said the DoA wrote a letter to the college authority showing interest for conserve the building in 2013.
"In that letter, the DoA asked to transfer the ownership of the land on which the building stands. But we are not authorised to transfer the rights of government land," he added.
AKM Saifur Rahman, DoA regional director in Chattogram, said he joined the office recently and did not know about the issue in detail.
"So far I know that a recommendation to protect the building has been sent from the Department of Archeology to the Ministry of Cultural Affairs," he said.
A site of historical importance
Locals call the building "Portuguese Bhaban". According to a local myth, the building was built by Portuguese pirates. It also had a tunnel that connected the Karnaphuli through which pirates would frequent secretly.
They also used to conduct surveillance from the two towers on the top of the building, the myth suggests.
However, historians dismissed the authenticity of the myth. According to them, the building was built during the British colonial period.
Historian Abdul Haque Chowdhury in his book "Bandar Shahar Chattogram" (Port Town Chattogram) said the structure was built soon after the British took over Chattogram in 1761.
"During the early period of the British era, they constructed the building to establish their court. There were two towers in the two-storey building built following Mughal and western architectural practices," the book suggests.
It also mentions that there was a dome in each tower from which the British watchmen used to watch the movement of ships in Karnaphuli river and the sea through binoculars.
The building was used as the court until the British rulers of the region shifted the court to Lalkuthi (Red Building) beside Laldighi in Chattogram around 1857.