Sona Masjid Parjatan Motel in state of disrepair
The authority is yet to start repair work of Sona Masjid Parjatan Motel in Shibganj upazila under Chapainawabganj, three years after men of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir badly damaged the motel.
Built by Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation beside the historic Sona Masjid, also near Sona Masjid land port, spending Tk 5 crore, the motel was scheduled to be inaugurated on March 15 in 2013 but it has not been functional due to lack of repair after the vandalism.
Consequently, tourists and businessmen coming to the area are facing residential problem and the government is deprived of huge revenue.
Soon after the International Crimes Tribunal-1 sentenced Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee to death for crimes against humanity during the Liberation War, several hundred local supporters of Jamaat-Shibir stormed the motel on February 28 in 2013, locals and employees of the Parjatan motel said.
The attackers torched and destroyed furniture and other valuables of different rooms, kitchen, and power generator room.
The attackers chased M Tawhidul Islam, assistant engineer, Motiar Rahman, manager, and Manjur Rahman, an assistant of the motel's construction firm, on the roof of the building and beat up Motiar and Manjur.
Scared, Tawhidul jumped from the roof and died on the spot, said locals.
The Jamaat-Shibir men, who came from neighbouring villages, also attacked the nearby Solar Power Plant at Pirijpur.
Khairul Islam, contractor of the motel building, said the authority informed the ministry concerned for sanction of fund for repairing the motel but to no effect so far.
Jahidul Islam, deputy commissioner of Chapainawabganj, said he has sent a letter to the chairman of Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation for repairing the motel immediately.
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