Karnaphuli River: Lawyer seeks resumption of eviction drive

Advocate Manzil Murshid, who filed the writ petition seeking High Court's directive in evicting illegal structures on the bank of river Karnaphuli issued a seven-day ultimatum to restart eviction drive, otherwise he will go to court with the appeal of contempt of court.

He issued the ultimatum while paying a visit to the river on Thursday.

Manzil Murshid filed the writ petition with High Court in 2012 seeking its order to assess how much land of Karnaphuli had been grabbed.

High Court in its directive ordered Chattogram District Administration (CDA) to conduct a survey. CDA found at least 2012 illegal structure in its survey and submitted it to the court in 2016.

High court then ordered an eviction of illegal settlements within six months, but the administration only started the drive on February 4 this year, a move hailed by environment activists.

But to utter shock, the eviction drive halted just after five days (February 9).

Against this backdrop, advocate Murshid visited the river and issued the ultimatum to restart the drive within a week.

'I visited the river, talked to the deputy commissioner, officials of Chattogram Port Authority and Department of Environment. I requested them to restart the drive within one week, unless I will move to High Court with the appeal of contempt of court,” he said.