Sec 144 on abandoned house in city
Dhaka Metropolitan Police yesterday imposed section 144 on an abandoned house on Tipu Sultan Road in Sutrapur following a conflict between two groups of Hindus.
Mohammad Nazrul Islam, officer-in-charge of Sutrapur police, said some Hindus led by Bidhu Babu and Chandan Babu decided to arrange a programme at the abandoned house Wednesday evening on the occasion of the Durga Puja.
The OC added some people took an idol of the Goddess Durga to the house the same evening.
On information, another group of Hindus rushed there and opposed the decision saying no such programme was arranged at the house in the last 40 years.
A tense situation was created as both the sides stuck to their decision.
To ward off any untoward incident Additional Deputy Commissioner (Wari Zone) Mohammad Alamgir Hossain clamped the section 144 around 12:30am.
Locals say the three-storey house is situated on a piece of about 17 katha land, which is vested property.
Earlier in 2000, three journalists took the house on lease for one year from the district administration and occupied it in the end of the last Awami League rule. Though their lease expired they did not vacate the house and continued maintaining their possession on it.
After the BNP-Jamaat alliance government assumed power in 2001 a BNP leader from Manikganj occupied the land claiming he had purchased it. He also rented out rooms of the house for setting up shops.
Joint Secretary of Mahanagar Puja Committee Nirmal Chatterjee told The Daily Star the house was declared vested property in 1913. Puja was arranged on its premises on regular basis, he added.
The Puja Committee condemned the incident that occurred on the eve of the Puja. Nirmal Chatterjee demanded that the land be freed from occupation by all illegal grabbers.
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