Crematorium land under illegal occupation

Hindu community people at Tilai Joichandi village in Sadar upazila are passing days amid insecurity as a local influential man continues threatening them of dire consequences after grabbing a major portion of their century-old crematorium land.

Meanwhile, seeking help of the local administration to recover the grabbed land of the crematorium, people on behalf of the community submitted a written complaint to Nilphamari deputy commissioner (DC) in the second week of October.

“Local Hindu community people set up the crematorium on 37 decimals of donated land over 100 years ago so that they can perform the cremation of dead bodies in religious rituals,” one of the complainants Premananda Saha, 61, said.

According to the British era CS record and Pakistan era SA record the land is clearly mentioned as a crematorium, he further said.

A few months ago, one Joynal Abedin, 60, son of late Kader Box of adjacent Arazi Charaikhola village forcibly grabbed 15 decimals of the crematorium land, he said, adding that he also dug a pond on the grabbed land using locally made dredgers, posing an erosion threat in the nearby areas.

Another complainant Nanda Roy, 50, said though they asked Joynal, a former textile mill workers' leader, on a number of occasions to show documents in favour of his claim, he did not pay any heed.

Following complaints from local Hindus, he arranged several arbitration meetings at his office but Joynal didn't attend any of those showing lame excuses, former chairman of Sonarai Union Parishad (UP) Ashwini Kumar Biswas said.

Many other Hindus like Kartik Roy and Jatindra Nath alleged that due to the grabbing the crematorium area has narrowed and people who come to attend any cremation have to stand on the road alongside the crematorium.

Refuting allegation of grabbing the crematorium land, Joynal said, “I purchased the land from a genuine successor of the previous owner and I will show the ownership document only to the court.”

Nilphamari Deputy Commissioner Nazia Shirin said they will investigate the matter and ensure the rights of its genuine owner.