Land grabbers ‘trying to drive elderly man away’
Influential locals, endorsed by a union parishad (UP) member, forcibly took away his land a couple of years back. Now, the same people are threatening the elderly day labourer so he leaves his village home for good.
The allegation was made recently by land owner Dinanath Roy, 60, from Fakirertokeya Balapara village in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila.
In a case filed with Lalmonirhat Sadar Police Station on February 2 in 2018, Dinanath alleged that five villagers including Majnu Miah and Sirazul Islam, a member of Panchagram UP in the same upazila; encroached on his seven decimals of land in the village on January 29.
Dinanath said he had a dream of building a house for his family. With that objective in mind, he bought the piece of land on January 26 in 2016 with money sent by his two sons, who also work as day labourers in Dhaka.
While trial of the case had been going on, he was trying to make ends meet by working at agricultural farmlands in the village. But now, after taking passion of the land, the accused have been trying to drive him out of his village by making repeated threats on his family, he also said.
Ever since he bought the land, Majnu Miah had been asking him to sell it to him. As he refused to do so, Majnu and his accomplices, backed by UP member Sirazul, forcibly took possession of the land and sold bamboo groves and other trees on the land.
“We didn’t dare to protest as the land grabber and his men had sharp weapons and sticks,” he said adding that Majnu within a few days built a structure with corrugated iron sheets there.
Now Dinanath and his family members are living in anxiety as the encroachers have been threatening of dire consequences unless they leave the village.
“I don’t know where else to go and don’t know how I will afford the legal battle to get my land back,” he said frustratingly.
Speaking with this correspondent over phone recently, Panchagram UP Member Sirazul said Majnu and his men took over the piece of land as Dinanath did not keep his previous promise of selling it to Majnu.
Asked about threats made on Dinanath, Sirazul said he was unaware of such incident.
Justifying his actions, Majnu also said he took possession of the land because Dinanath had backtracked on his previous commitment of selling the piece of land to him.
He, however, said he was still willing to pay Dinanath for his land. “If Dinanath comes to me, I will pay according to [running] rate of the land.”
Contacted, Sub-Inspector Mainul Islam of the police station said the case over the land was still pending at the court and he, on various occasions, asked the accused not to threaten the complainant.
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