Speakers, including rights activists, on Thursday demanded that no export processing zones be built by grabbing the triple-cropping land of the Santals, a plain land national minority community in the Sahebganj Bagda Farm area of Gobindaganj upazila in Gaibandha.
They made the demand at a press conference held at the National Press Club, organised by 14 land and rights-based organisations, including the Association for Land Reform and Development, Nijera Kori, Transparency International Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, and Kapaeeng Foundation.
ALRD executive director Shamsul Huda, who read out a written statement, said that in 1956, the then East Pakistan government requisitioned 1,842.30 acres of land belonging to the Santal community for sugarcane cultivation and the construction of a sugar mill.
Although the land was handed over to Rangpur Sugar Mills in 1962 with the agreement that it would be returned to the original owners if not used for the intended purpose, it was never returned鈥攅ven after the mill was shut down in 2004.
Following the Awami League government鈥檚 decision to build an EPZ on the land, protests erupted and three Santal men were killed and many others injured in a clash as police attempted to evict the entire Santal community from the area on November 6, 2016.
Although the project was halted in the face of widespread protests during the AL regime, the interim government鈥攚hich came to power by ousting the fascist AL government on August 5 through a mass uprising鈥攈as renewed efforts to implement the EPZ project, said Shamsul Huda.聽
鈥楽everal officials of the local administration are creating panic among the Santal and Bengali communities by pushing for the establishment of the EPZ on the land before conducting聽 the proper environmental and social impact assessments,鈥� he added.聽
Demanding the withdrawal of the EPZ project, Nijera Kori coordinator Khushi Kabir said that ordinary people suffered when laws and policies were not properly implemented.
They demanded the return of the Santal land, a comprehensive assessment of the proposed project鈥檚 impact not only on the land, water, environment, and agriculture in the Bagda Farm area but also on the entire agro-ecological region taking into account its long-term and far-reaching consequences, and ensuring justice for the three Santal men killed in 2016 as well as providing compensation to the families of those killed and injured.
