3,000 villagers prosecuted for Banshkhali killing

Three cases accusing over 3,000 people were filed on Tuesday over the Monday’s clash with police, in which four villagers were shot dead during protests against a move to construct a coal-based power plant at Banshkhali in Chittagong.
Of the cases, families of the four dead filed two cases while the other was filed by the Banskhali police, police said.
Over 20 people, including 11 policemen, were also injured in the clash.
The agitators alleged that a local conglomerate, S Alam Group, was grabbing their land in the remote village of Gondamara to set up the China-funded power plant.
Locals on Tuesday continued their agitation in the area demanding punishment of the killers.
Several thousand people took part in the funeral prayers after the bodies were taken to the village.
After the prayers, the agitators — males, females and children — held a rally where they vowed to continue the protest at any cost.
Killing of four people in police firing has sparked protests by different political parties and rights organisations.
BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, in a statement on Tuesday, condemning the attack, demanded a judicial probe into the killings and said now it was a common practice in the country to open fire on demonstrators.
Leaders of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports demanded in protest rallies in the capital and in the Chittagong city on Tuesday immediate arrest of the killers and their exemplary punishments.
The authorities in Chittagong formed a probe body beside tightening security as the clash-hit locality witnessed fresh agitation on Tuesday against the killing of villagers, officials said.
‘We formed a probe body, headed by additional district magistrate Mominur Rashid, to investigate the clash at Chinese power plant site. It was asked to submit the report within seven days,’ said deputy commissioner of Chittagong Mesbah Uddin.
‘We also beefed up security in the area as a tense situation was prevailing there,’ he added.
Officer-in-charge of Banskhali police station Swapon Kumar Mazumder informed that three cases were filed in connection with the clash — one by police and two others by relatives of the dead.
‘Already we have arrested three people and we are on a hunt for others. Besides, our lawmen have been kept on high alert to maintain peace at the clash-hit area of Gondamara,’ Swapon said.
Additional superintendent of police in Chittagong Md Habibur Rahman said that Banshkhali police station sub-inspector Bahar Mia lodged a case accusing 57 identified people and 3,200 unidentified people for assault on the police.
Villager Bashir Ahmed filed a case over the killing of his two brothers — Anwar Ali and Murtaza Ali and Mortaza’s son-in-law Zaker, accusing six identified people and 1500 unnamed people.
Monowara Begum, wife of another deceased Zaker Hossain, 50, filed another case accusing 1,500 unnamed people.
Additional police superintendent Habibur Rahman told New Age that they had handed over four bodies to the respective family after autopsy.
Fear of environment pollution and other hazards, if the power plant was installed, prompted the people of Gondamara area of Banshkhali to go for agitation, local sources said.
The locals alleged that some people in favour of S Alam Group forced them to sell their land to the group.
Mosharraf Hossain, an Imam of a mosque in Chittagong city and resident of Gondamara, told New Age that there were several hundred homesteads in the area where S Alam Group was trying to set up the coal-fired power plant.
‘We will not be able to live there if the power plant is set up. Our household, arable land and salt processing fields would be damaged due to the pollution if the plant was set up,’ said Mosharraf.
Hanif, an honours student of Chittagong College and resident of the village, said S Alam Group engaged some paid brokers to grab local people’s land.
‘The brokers forced local people to sell their land at lower price. They threatened us when we did not agree to sell our land,’ said Hanif.
Aziz Ahmed, another villager, said ‍ the coal-fired power plant would have negative impacts on the environment — water and air of the area would be polluted and they would in the end have to leave the area.
Meanwhile, witnesses of the Monday’s incident said that police and agents of S Alam Group opened fire targeting the villagers that caused the casualties.
Abdur Rahim of the village said that police or any other authorities did not inform the locals about imposing section 144.
‘Police and hired goons of S Alam Group opened fire targeting the local people who gathered at Hadipara Primary School field to hold a rally against the move of coal-fired power plant’, said Rahim.
Jahirul Islam, 30, owner of Al Madina Hotel at Gondamara Bazar, who is now undergoing treatment at Chittagong Medical College and Hospital with bullet wounds, said at the hospital on Monday night, ‘Police shot me in one leg from three to four feet away when I was  running for shelter after shutting my hotel’.
S Alam Group chairman Mohammed Saiful Alam, denying the allegations, said, ‘We have no involvement in whatever has happened. We have no problem about the ownership of the land and with the people of the locality,’ he told New Age over phone on Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile, the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports organised a protest rally in front of National Press Club, where its member secretary Anu Muhammad said local people would lose their homesteads and the environment of the area would be destroyed if the power plant was set up there.
He urged the government to take immediate steps to find out the killers and give them exemplary punishment.
Communist Party of Bangladesh, Socialist Party of Bangladesh and Jatiya Mukti Council held separate rallies in the capital protesting at killings at Banskhali.
In separate statements, rights body Ain O Salish Kendra and Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan, an NGO working on environment, condemned the police firing.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net