Land Grabber's Desperate Bid Houses of indigenous family looted, burnt

Your Right To Know
Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Our Correspondent, Dinajpur

Criminals looted and burnt the houses of an indigenous family at Kasimnagar village in Birganj upazila under the district in brought daylight yesterday, triggering panic among the community.

Led by an alleged land grabber of the area and his two accomplices, around 15 to 20 men equipped with bamboo and wooden sticks attacked the house of Kazra Besra at Kasimnagar village at around 12:30pm, witnesses said.

The criminals assaulted the family members including females and children and dragged them out of the house. After looting things from there, the attackers set at least four houses on fire.

Before leaving the area, the criminals set fire to the kitchen at the house of one of the accomplices of the alleged land grabber, locals said.

"Nobody dared to come forward to help us as the criminals stayed here until the houses were burnt to ashes. The criminals set fire to the house of one of them with an evil intention to brand us as criminals," said Kazra Besra, the victim.

Local indigenous people said they informed Birganj police of the matter but the law enforcers arrived around 90 minutes later although the distance could be covered in 20 minutes.

Kazra, a day labourer, have been living on 15 decimal land with 12 family members including two sons and daughters-in-law. The land belongs to Kedara Besra, another indigenous person at Kasimnagar village in Birganj upazila.

"A local land grabber and his two accomplices have been intimidating us to leave the area in a bid to grab our land and finally they burnt our houses," said Kazra's son Bisu Besra.

Around 40 indigenous families live in the village, locals said.

Arzu Ara Begum, upazila nirbahi officer of Birganj, Shahab Uddin, additional superintendent of police of Sadar Circle and Shamsun Nur, officer in charge of Birganj police station visited the area yesterday afternoon.