Several thousand people of Bhatiary at Sitakunda in Chittagong rallied and blocked the Dhaka–Chittagong Highway on Sunday morning in protest at land acquisition by the Bangladesh Military Academy.
The procession and blockade, which continued for more than two hours, suspended traffic, with hundreds of vehicles being stranded on both ends of the road stretch. The highway police cleared the road in their efforts for about three hours.
The villagers in seven processions about 9:30am marched towards Bhatiary Bazar and then paraded a 3km stretch of the highway in a single procession. They later gathered near the Bijoy Smarani College gate.
Leaders of the protesters, teamed up as Chapter Area Pratirodh Committee, at a meeting before the procession talked with the people of the area.
Former Bhatiary union council chairman Mohammad Ishak at the meeting said that the government had no rights to grab people's landed property by force. He urged the government and the military academy not to grab people's
land and drop the plan for the establishment of the chapter area.
The newly elected chairman of the union council Nurul Anwar said that the people of Bhatiary would fight on to protect their homestead homes by any means.
Abdus Salam, an inhabitant of the area, said that the military academy had been trying to acquire more than four square kilometres of land around the academy on security grounds although there had been no such incidents in the area that had ever jeopardised the security of the academy.
The academy authorities want to keep people out of the area and control the movement of people by fencing off the entire place under the chapter area, he said.
People of Bhatiary will fight against such aggression and efforts for land acquisition, he added.
Earlier on Sunday, several thousand people of the area formed a human chain and held protests on Bijoy Smarani College campus. The lawmaker for the Sitakunda constituency, Abul Kashem, addressed the programme as chief guest and expressed his solidarity with the movement of the people.
Kashem said that the illogical and unnecessary acquisition of land at Bhatiary would be resisted by any means. He said that the academy already owns a huge hill area and if it would need more land, it could acquire hill areas.
There is no justification of acquiring land by evicting at least 5,000 people, he added. He urged the people to get ready for a tough movement.
The government acquired 282 acres of land at Jungle Bhatiary Mauza in 1958 and 1975 to set up the military academy.
In 1984, 1986 and 1990, the government further acquired 20 acres of land by evicting several thousand people.
In 2008, the military-backed caretaker government declared more than two square kilometres of the land as chapter area.
The people later filed a writ petition with the High Court seeking a stay order on the declaration of the military academy. The court later issued a stay on the declaration.
Source : New Age
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