Human rights monitoring group Ain o Salish Kendra yesterday claimed that the ruling party’s lawmakers from Thakurgaon and some other areas were involved in grabbing the land of the Hindus.
ASK Executive Director Sultana Kamal, also an adviser to a former caretaker government, said that they had got proof of the allegations against Thakurgaon MP Dabirul Islam and his followers during a visit to Baliadangi on November 24-25.
A team visited the area to scrutinise the allegation of torture on the Hindus on June 19 last year.
Disclosing findings of the tour at the National Press Club, Sultana Kamal said that attacks on minority communities had increased recently. Such incidents go against the spirit of the Liberation War and the ruling party which had promised to uphold the spirit, she said, demanding immediate action against the perpetrators.
Asked if any other MP other than Dabirul was involved in such activities, she said they had found allegations against a minister from Faridpur, Primary and Mass Education Minister Mostafizur Rahman Fizar.
Earlier, Bangladesh Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Oikya Parishad, a platform of religious minority communities, made the same allegation against several ruling party ministers and lawmakers including Dabirul. They claimed some miscreants were engaged in gobbling the land of the minorities across the country using the name of the ruling party.
Kajal Debnath, president of Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad, at the press conference yesterday said the followers of a minister in Dinajpur had attacked on Hindus and grabbed their land recently in Parbatipur area.
Jiten Chandra Singh of Baliadangi said lawmaker Dabirul’s son Mazharul Islam had attacked on his brother Bhokaram Singh on June 19 last year. They ordered him to hand over the land to them, and at one stage he was stabbed.
He said Bhokaram’s son Avilal Singh had gone to Delhi after the attack.
Subroto Chowdhury, general secretary of Vested Property Act Resistance Movement, presented the summary of their report at the programme. He alleged that the police and locals had remained silent during the attack in Baliadangi area last year.
He said around 8-10 people were injured in the attack. Later Akuram moved to India with his family members.
Subroto claimed that the MP and his followers made the attack to evict the local Hindus with an intent to use their land for the newly-established Ranabagh Islam Tea Garden.
