Relics left unprotected
Though listed for preservation by Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha, the 232-year-old Armenian church in Old Dhaka is yet to be recognised as a protected heritage site by the Department of Archaeology.
“As part of our efforts to declare the church a protected heritage site, we sent four letters to the deputy commissioner's office asking for land schedule [details on land] of the church,” said Rakhi Roy, deputy director (antiquity) of the Department of Archaeology.
“But we are yet to receive any reply,” she said, adding that the department sent the DC office two letters in 2000, one in 2010 and another on June 6, 2011.
But the land division of the DC office said it could not trace any of the letters sent by the Department of Archaeology.
About the letters, DC Shaikh Yusuf Harun said, “Hundreds of letters arrive every day in this office. If they [officials of the Department of Archaeology] are so keen on obtaining the land schedule of the church, they should have contacted us over the phone after sending the letters.”
While the whereabouts of the letters remain a mystery, time continues to take its toll on the stone inscriptions on the Armenian graves that lie in the premises of the age-old church in Armanitola.
Archaeologist Dr Sufi Mostafiz said, “The stone inscriptions at the church premises carry historical value, as they tell stories of Dhaka's lost Armenian community.”
But the Department of Archaeology said it didn't have any list of the stone inscriptions at the church.
Even the Committee for Documentation on Architectural Sites in Dhaka couldn't obtain a complete list of stone inscriptions there.
Committee Chairman Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique, also vice chancellor of Dhaka University, said, “We contacted the church's custodian Michael Joseph Martin. He declined to give us information, saying since it is a private property he was not liable to disclose any information about it.”
Martin could not be reached for comment as he is now abroad for medical treatment.
The church was included in the 2009 Rajuk gazette, in which 93 buildings and four areas were listed for preservation, said Taimur Islam, Chief Executive of Urban Study Group that campaigns for conservation of architectural and urban heritage of Old Dhaka.
He said the Department of Archaeology could enter into an agreement with the church authorities under Section 12 of the Antiquity Law that allows protection of historically significant buildings and sites without acquisition of land by the department.
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