SHILLONG: At least 20 Khasi people were injured in an attack by land grabbers at Nahar Punjee, a locality of the community, in Moulvi Bazar’s Srimangal Upazila in Bangladesh on Friday.
Sources informed that the victims were attacked with sticks while some were even hacked by sharp objects when they resisted the attackers’ advances.
The injured, 13 of them female, were sent to Moulvi Bazar Sadar Hospital. The condition of four people was critical, and one was shifted to Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital.
The sources informed that around 11 am on Friday, about two hundred people led by the manager of Nahar Tea Garden, which has for long been claiming some 200 acres of land where the Khasi people reside, started marching towards Nahar Punjee (village) in order to evict its residents and occupy the land.
Dibarmin Pohtam, assistant headman of Nahar Punjee, demanded immediate arrest of the attackers. “We have been living on this land for a long time but they are now claiming ownership.”
About 34 Khasi families live in Nahar Punjee, which is located on the top of a hillock neighbouring the tea garden. The 200-acre land includes several such hillocks populated by the indigenous tribes, said the assistant headman.
Bably Talang, general secretary of KUBORAZ Inter Punjee Development Association of Khasi people, demanded compensation from Bangladesh government for the attack victims.
During the attack, betel leaf plantations were also destroyed. The Khasi settlers depend on the plantations for their livelihood.
Incidentally, the manager of the tea garden informed this scribe that the land in question was theirs and the indigenous people had grabbed it.
Father Joseph Gomes, a member of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon (BAPA) based in Moulvi Bazar informed that the indigenous community comes under the attack of land grabbers every now and then.
When contacted, Md Abdul Jalil, officer in-charge of Srimangal Police Station, under which the village falls, said police would investigate the incident soon and take legal action against the culprits.
