A ruling party lawmaker in Khulna built a 10-foot high wall allegedly to box in a neighbour within his real estate in Khulna’s Paikgacha upazila.
The family of Abdul Aziz Goldar, also an active Awami League member, accused Sheikh Md Nurul Haque, the lawmaker from Khulna 6 constituency, of attempting to evict them from their land through his alleged land grabbing move.
While talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Aziz said: “My family has been living on the land for as many as 70 years. But now we feel like we are besieged as Nurul has contained us from all the sides by building the wall last year.”
Some of the younger members crawl underneath the wall
Dhaka TribuneMembers of the family are being forced to squeeze through a narrow hole beneath the wall while younger ones are using ladders to cross it, putting themselves in peril, said Aziz’s son Asadul Islam, a Chhatra League activist of the local unit.
Aziz’s family filed two cases – one for “land grabbing” and the other for “vandalising” their homes -- against the lawmaker’s family in this regard.
Asadul told the Dhaka Tribune that the MP himself showed up on January 2 last year and threatened to evict them. And it all began after the MP’s son, Sheikh Monirul Islam, retained power of attorney of a government land right beside Aziz’s estate.
“In order to harass us, MP’s family filed a false extortion case which made my dad (Abdul Aziz) languishing in jail for 26 days. We are scared; we can’t have normal life anymore under these circumstances,” Asadul said.
Some younger ones are using ladders to cross it
Dhaka TribuneHe also alleged that his family was not getting adequate support from the local administration, as the lawmaker’s family is quite influential in the locality.
Police said they were investigating the claims made by Aziz’s family.
When contacted, the MP’s son Monirul told the Dhaka Tribune that Aziz himself got the possession of the estate by forcefully evicting a Hindu family.
“Thakur Das Halder and Ajit Halder, the original owners of the estate, asked my family’s assistance to regain possession of the land and that’s how I got the power of attorney of it,” Monirul said.
He also said they had no choice but to build the wall since Aziz’s family overlooked an arbitrary ruling, which asked them to vacate the piece of land.