A joint eviction team of Dhaka district administration and Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority demolished 85 structures constructed illegally along the river Buriganga in Swarighat in the Old Town of Dhaka foiling obstructions by the encroachers.
The eviction team resumed Thursday its drive to remove illegal structures from the bank of Buriganga, to save the river which is the lifeline of the capital.
About 100 labourers with bulldozers and hammers carried out the drive led by Dhaka district administration’s executive magistrate Muhammad Kamruzzaman.
A total of 208 illegal structures are on the list of demolition at Swarighat, said Sharif Afzal Hossain, Dhaka river port officer of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority.
As the team started pulling down K Ali Wheat Warehouse, locals hurled stones at the team backed by the police in a bid to disrupt the drive. Police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters.
‘As locals locked in clashes with us, police and Rapid Action Battalion reinforcements arrived to bring the situation under control,’ the executive magistrate said.
‘Police fired nine tear gas shells,’ he said. However, no major injuries were reported.
The magistrate said a regular case would be lodged against the owner of K Ali Wheat Warehouse.
‘We pulled down 73 structures during on the first day of the eviction drive on Wednesday and 85 structures on Thursday,’ said Kamruzzaman.
‘The rest of the structures will be demolished on a later date,’ he added.
The structures, mostly semi-concrete, are used as groceries and fruit shops, storehouses and offices of different business establishments.
The team could not knock down a portion of a three-story building of Noorani Centre, constructed illegally, in the face of obstruction.
The district administration is conducting the drive in line with the High Court’s directives for river demarcation and eviction of the encroachers.
Meanwhile, an eviction team of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha on the same day removed several hundred illegal structures at section 10 in Uttara and knocked down the illegal portion of a six-storey building at section 3.
The eviction team comprising about 50 labourers with bulldozers was led by Rajuk’s executive magistrate Rokon Ud-Doula.
A 40-strong police force assisted the team in the eviction drive.
Earlier on Wednesday, an eviction team of Rajuk removed around 500 illegal structures from the Rajuk land during a drive at Uttara and its surroundings.
