The evicted residents of Kalyanpur slum area in Dhaka have claimed that the drive was conducted yesterday as per direction from the local lawmaker in defiance of a High Court stay order.
They claimed that the High Court had ordered the government in 2007 to not conduct any drives until a rule, issued in 2003, was settled. Yesterday’s drive was conducted not only against the court order but also without any notices, they alleged.
However, Executive Magistrate Nur Alam, who led the drive, claimed that they had duly completed all legal procedures before going into action.
He was accompanied by high officials of the Housing and Building Research Institute under Housing and Public Works Ministry. They claimed that the slum dwellers had been served prior notices.
The residents alleged that local Awami League lawmaker Aslamul Haque’s followers also accompanied the eviction team wearing red bandanna on their heads. The bandannas had the name “GRP Corporation” printed on them. But more details could not immediately be dug about that company.
Locals also alleged that the MP’s muscle men had hurled bricks at the slum dwellers during the clash that ensued after a demo was staged to prevent the government team from demolishing structures in the slum.
The nine slums located side by side in Kalyanpur area cover some 20 hectares of land and are home to around 20,000 people. During the drive, 40-50 shanties of a slum and some shanties of two other slums were demolished with bulldozers.
Yesterday’s drive left several hundred people homeless, many of who later took position on the Kalyanpur Buddhijibi ground and other open spaces amid cold. In the night, they were rife with rumours and fear that the eviction drive may resume today led by the lawmaker himself despite the fresh stay order.
An elderly couple was seen sitting on the remains of their shanty, helplessly, in the night under the open sky. When asked, day labourer Salauddin, 55, said that they had been living in the slum for around 29 years.
“We could not move the belongings from the room due to the sudden drive. I will search for a room in another slum today,” he said.
The drive began around noon and continued until 2:30pm before an agitated mob of slum dwellers blocked the way of the bulldozers by taking position and lighting up a fire in the middle of the road leading to some other parts of the slum.
In reply to bricks hurled at the eviction team members by the agitators, police hurled tear gas cannisters to disperse the mob injuring four people. Around 20 platoons of police accompanied the ministry team.
Seeking anonymity, an elderly woman evicted yesterday claimed that they had been offered various sums of money by MP Aslam’s men to shift from the slum.
“Now that we have declined his offer and refused to give up our possession, he flexed his political muscles and arranged for the drive,” she said.
Two days ago, Abdus Salam, president of the association of all slum dwellers in Dhaka city, said: “People have been living in this slum since 1986. At present, around 3,500 families live here. MP Aslam has been trying to evict the people from the land for a long time.”
However, neither Salam nor MP Aslam could be reached on their mobile phones until late last night.
Yesterday’s demolition drive at the Kalyanpur slum came at a time when the High Court was conducting hearing on a supplementary appeal for a stay order against any demolition drives.
The appeal was filed a day ago by rights body Ain o Salish Kendra and the representatives of the slum dwellers. This was done in response to a January 10 letter from the ministry that asked the executive magistrate to conduct a drive at the slum.
After hearing on the plea yesterday, the High Court issued a fresh three-months’ stay order on any such drives at the slum. When the order was being read out, the authorities’ eviction drive was already going on in the Kalyanpur slum.
Asked about yesterday’s stay order, Nur Alam, executive magistrate and assistant secretary to the Public Works Ministry, told reporters that the copy of the High Court order had not reached their hands and that was why they carried on with the drive.
He also claimed that none of the slum dwellers managed to produce any copy of the 2007 stay order when they had asked for it.
Slum dwellers, most of whom are rickshaw-pullers, garment factory workers and truck drivers by profession, said their leader Salam had a copy of the 2007 order.
Asked if they had any order from the court, Magistrate Nur Alam only managed to produce an order from the Housing and Public Works Ministry. According to existing rules, ministry orders cannot overturn court orders.