Bicharer Vani Nirabe Nivrite Kande:

Minorities of Nazirpur Upazila thinking of leaving the country

-Ajoy Roy


Charbaniayri is a small village under Nazirpur police station (Upazila) in
the district of Pirojpur district in southern Bengal. Pirojpur is an
adjacent district of Bagerhat. The Nazirpur police station is adjacent to
Chitalmari police station in Bagerhat, a notorious place known for terrorist
activities. Chitalmari has a good number of Hindu minorities mostly
belonging to famous Namasudra caste. They are, since October 2001 election,
being constantly harassed this way or that way.

Perojpur district has also sizeable number of Hindu population wherefrom AL
leader Sudhansu Shekhar Haldar contested in the last election against one of
the top Jamat i Islami leader Delwar Hosain Sayidee, sitting MP (he has been
found guilty of malpractice in the last election by the High court in a
recent verdict). Recently, some time in early week of December ’03 a group
of armed miscreants made an assault on the minority population of the said
village. The gangsters looted fishes within the enclaves) spread over 85
acres of land and forcible destroyed paddy fields infested with young paddy
plants. The landowners when tried to resist were mercilessly beaten by the
armed terrorists, alleged to be armed cadres of the local BNP. The
terrorists forcibly drove away the injured persons admitted for treatment.
They also forcibly strike out the names of the injured from the hospital
register. Such is their power and influence. Obviously only armed cadres
could not do it unless they had the support of the local BNP leaders,
otherwise they would have come forward to in aid of the victims. It has been
alleged that miscreants came from the adjacent Chitalmari union of Bagerhat
district. The Chitalmari police however arrested so called 5 miscreants in
this connection. But none belonged to principal culprits, the victims
opined. As a result these culprits are at large and roaming about openly.
The district commissioner (DC) and SP of Perojpur after visiting the
locality opined the same i.e. miscreants came from Chitalmari union. The
local leaders belonging to Government parties opined that the miscreants
from other side of the district did this in order to damage the image of the
government of Khaleda Begum, an intentional and skillful design on the part
of the opposition. A cleaver thinking indeed, but not novel.

But local people and many eyewitnesses contended that a newly emerged local
BNP leader known as Mujibur Rahman Mollah led this operation with hundreds
of his armed cadres. They first ransacked the abodes of families belonging
to Biswas titleholders, a very common title found among the Hindus in those
localities and then raid the fish enclaves, all belonging to many Biswas
families. The incident took place on Sunday,14th December, 2003. The
operation started at 10 a.m. and continued for two hours in open daylight.
Can you think of it happening in a civilized society having well knit civil
and police administration supervised by state machinery controlled by a
democratic government (!).

The family included Mr. Jagadish Biswas, a senior assistant secretary of the
ministry of information, headed an influential BNP leader, Mr. Tariqul
Islam, once a follower of Bhasani practicing left politics. Mr. Nagendra
Biswas and Chapala Devi, parents of the secretary, said to the interviewing
journalists that those miscreants were trying to grab their property for the
last 3-4 years. The injured persons during the assault were Rasamoy Biswas
(60), Kamalesh Biswas (30), Krishna Biswas (18), Rina Biswas (30), Bakulrani
(26), Sangita (22), Jharnarani (20), and Jayanta Biswas --- all were taken
to nearby health complex, but before proper treatment was admitted they were
released at the instance of some influential quarter, alleged the victim
families.

The funniest thing is that the ‘all knowing’ MP of the locality Janab
Sayidee disclosed in a meeting of ‘law and order’ committee that the entire
event was a staged managed drama. There was no factual basis.

But whatever Sayidee said or the government party-men pronounced the victims
are living under the shadow of panic and un-easiness. Many well to do Biswas
families are thinking seriously of leaving their motherland for good. If
such physical and psychological repressions continue unabated on the
minority community, the Hindus would not be able to stay here in future.
This is the general opinion of the Hindu community. Should they be blamed if
such sentiments they cherish. Would the fariad (crying voice) of poor and
week population reach our beloved PM and her associates ? I really wonder !