Around 50,000 cubic-feet of more stones looted from Sadapathar at Bholaganj in Companiganj upazila were recovered from Dhopagul area at sadar upazila in Sylhet on Saturday.
Sylhet sadar upazila nirbahi officer Khushnoor Rubaiyath told 抖阴精品 that executive magistrate Mehedi Hasan Hridoy led a Rapid Action Battalion team in the drive at Dhopagul about noon to recover the stones.
鈥楾he recovered stones are being put back to Sadapathar tourist spot,鈥� she said in the afternoon.
With the latest recovery, around 28,00,000cft of stones looted from the Sadapathar were聽recovered since July 13, according to the district administration.
Local environment rights activists and local people, however, claimed that more than 20 million cubic feet of stones were looted from Sadapathar and nearby Railway Bunker area since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League regime on August 5 past year.
They said that within about half a kilometer of the tourist spot, a railway bunker was built many years ago to send stone raw material to now-closed Chhatak cement factory.
Stones were stored there to send to the cement factory through a ropeway system, they said.
After the factory was closed down, the ropeway also fell out of use and the stones that were stored at the bunker and adjacent areas were left there.
But after the August 5 changeover, almost the entire lot of the stones with a volume of 10鈥�15 million cubic feet was looted along with those at the tourist spot, they alleged.
The activists and local residents further alleged that unscrupulous people having political connections took advantage of the fragile law and order situation after the regime fall to loot the stones and sand from several areas鈥擲adapathar and Utma Chhara in Companiganj upazila, Jaflong tourist spot at Goainghat upazila, Rangpani tourist spot at Shripur under Jaintapur upazila, Lobha Chhara at Kanaighat upazila, all in Sylhet district.