No trace of 3 youths missing during Rupganj violence a month ago
It has been a month since Shamsher Mollah went missing during the clashes between villagers and law enforcers in Rupganj over purchase of land for an army housing project.
Most of Shamsher’s family members now seem certain that he will never return.
Considering him dead, they even have held a Milad Mahfil at a local mosque to pray for his “departed soul”.
Yet, someone at Kamtasair village in Rupganj waits for Shamsher.
Sumi Akhter, his mother, sits under a mango tree for hours every day, gazing at the country road that would bring her boy home.
“I know they have taken away my son. I’ve seen his photo in the newspapers. Tell me why I shouldn’t wait for him,” she told The Daily Star recently.
Shamsher of Kamtasair was bullet-hit on October 23 when the locals broke into fierce protests against “forced purchase of land” by army officers.
After he was shot near the makeshift army camp at Tanmushury, security forces flew him away in a helicopter along with some other injured villagers, family members alleged.
“We’ve searched for him everywhere…at all the hospitals and clinics, but didn’t find him,” said Mostafa Mollah, father of Shamsher.
“At least we could have offered prayers at his grave, had we known the place,” said a cousin of the missing.
Neither the local lawmaker nor anyone from the government has visited Shamsher’s house.
Two more youths–Abdul Aleem Masud and Saidul Islam of Bariasoni village–vanished that day.
Their family members too have gone from hospital to hospital to look for them, but in vain.
“We rushed to the hospitals every time we heard someone like my son had been seen,” said Masud’s father Shahor Ali.
This year’s Eid offered nothing for these families to celebrate.
“How will we celebrate Eid? With whom? Our son is no more with us,” lamented Shahor.
Sajeda Begum, mother of Saidul, said, “We don’t know how the Eid came and went.”
The disappearance of the three has financial implications too, as they were the breadwinners in their families.
“Now, I will have to manage Tk 6,400 a month to pay in instalments for the bank loans we took out for setting up this shop,” said Shahor pointing to the tea stall Masud used to run at Ichhapur Bazar.
Local Awami League lawmaker Golam Dastagir Gazi has recently visited Masud’s house and given his father Tk 12,000.
Sajeda said her son Saidul’s fruit shop has been closed since the Rupganj unrest.
To make matters worse, she cannot work much for the wounds she received when the Rab men beat her up for trying to free Saidul from their hold.
At least one person was killed and over 50 including law enforcers were injured in the pitched battles between law enforcers and the locals of Rupganj in Narayanganj.
Villagers said they staged the protests, as some army officers were forcing them to sell the lands they have been living on for generations now.
Sub-inspector KM Akhtaruzzaman of Rupganj Police Station said they have recorded three general diaries with regard to the three missing youths.
Police, Rab and the army have filed three cases with the local police station, accusing some 4,000 unnamed people of involvement in the violence last month.
Another two cases–one for arson and one for murder–have been filed by two locals.
Abdur Rafiq, father of Mostafa Jamal who died of bullet wounds during the clashes, is the complainant in the murder case.
Talking to these correspondents, he said he wants the administration to treat his case as seriously as they would treat those filed by the law enforcers and the army.
“I have lost my son, but I don’t want anything in return. All I want is peace and that no innocent villager is tortured again,” said Rafiq who could not attend his son’s namaj-e-janaza because the law enforcers had buried him “hurriedly”.
SI Akhtaruzzaman, also investigation officer (IO) in all the five cases, said they have interrogated some 40 to 50 people and identified some of those involved in the protests.
“We are not arresting anyone, as the villagers are still in panic,” he said replying to a query. He also said they have yet to find any political instigation behind the Rupganj violence.
A number of senior AL leaders including Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif had claimed that the main opposition BNP had a hand in the clashes.
“Intelligence agencies and police are investigating the incident. Certain kingpins have already been identified,” said the IO.
Forkan Shikder, officer-in-charge of Rupganj Police Station, yesterday said they have identified some of the “troublemakers” from TV footage and newspaper photos of the unrest.
“We will go on a drive to arrest them at a time we would deem appropriate,” he added.
Meanwhile, Jummon, another youth who was bullet-hit, is still undergoing treatment at the CMH.
A friend of his said he was flown out of the village along with Shamsher.
The CMH authorities are bearing all his expenses.
Land Registration
Visiting the government land office at Rupganj upazila, these correspondents found a number of villagers busy selling their lands.
Registry officials and stamp vendors said land registration in Rupganj is going on in full swing since a week after the unrest.
Army officers had been allegedly barring the locals from selling their lands to anyone other than them. The army authorities, however, denied the allegation.
