Trapped in uncertainty

Santina Tudu, 60, is now all by herself and begging is her sole means of survival.

She is among many Santals who are still dealing with the consequences of a clash over a disputed piece of land in Shahebganj farm area of Gobindaganj upazila of Gaibandha on this day two years ago.

“I have nobody in this world. Who will look after me?” said Santina, who lost her husband in the clash and her only daughter moved away with her husband.

The government had acquired the land in 1962 from the Santals for sugarcane cultivation for the Rangpur Sugar Mill. The condition was that the land would be returned to the Santals if the mill went under, which it eventually did.

Backed by local influentials, the police launched an eviction drive on November 6, 2016. They opened fire on the Santals leaving three dead, many injured, and many more missing. A village was razed and the Santals' properties were either destroyed or looted.

Since the eviction, about 1,200 Santal families had been living in tents in Joypurpara and Madarpur villages.

Worse off are the ones who suffered gunshot injuries and have splinters in their bodies.

Dizen Tudu of Joypurpara village was shot in his left eye. “I have lost the eye. Now I cannot go outside because the sunlight hurts. Thus, I cannot work or earn. I have become a burden on my wife,” Dizen told this correspondent.

Fifty-year-old Chayen Saren of Madarpur village said, “X-ray report shows that I am bearing many splinters. In the summer, I feel extremely hot inside and in the winter, I have acute pain.”

Hapna Mormu, 60, of the same village has a hand partially paralysed. “Bullets have almost paralysed my left hand. Now I have to do everything with one hand.”

Santal women are still scared of going outside although two years have passed since the incident. They fear that they would be assaulted by “outsiders”.

"Out of fear of being attacked, women are sitting idle at home while men are out there working for meagre wages in different districts,” said Nikhalata Tudu, 28, of the village.

People of this minority group have alleged that they were yet to receive any government aid.

“An NGO gave me Tk 10,000 after my father was murdered that day. That's all I got since,” said Josna Tudu, 32.

REHABILITATION?!

Ramkrishna Barman, upazila nirbahi officer in Gobindaganj, first claimed to have rehabilitated at least 70 Santal families to Betara Guchchhagram from Shahebganj farm earlier in the year. “We gave them three decimals of land and houses.

“Soon, we will rehabilitate 100 more families under the government's Ashrayan projects in Kamdia and Katabari unions,” said the UNO.

However, during a visit to the Betara Guchchhagram in May, this correspondent found no Santal from Shahebganj farm area. Rather, people belonging to other indigenous groups and some Bangalees were living at the cluster village.

“The administration has rehabilitated about 40 indigenous families from Fulohar, Kutra Para, Jugiya since the beginning of this year but they are not the evicted Santals,” claimed Zishail Hembrom, 37, who was rehabilitated by the local administration.

Zishail, a Santal but not a victim of the 2016 eviction, over the phone said about three months ago, the upazila administration rehabilitated 30 more families to Betera. Among them, only two or three families were victims of the eviction incident.

Asked about this, UNO Ramkrishna said, “The Santals want to be rehabilitated to their ancestral land, not to any other place. How do we rehabilitate them if they are not willing to stay somewhere else?”

Gaibandha Deputy Commissioner Sebastin Rema, who joined office recently, said he could not get a chance to meet the Santal communities of Shahebganj farm. He said that he along with the superintendent of police would soon visit.

LEGAL PROGRESS

A case against 33, including a local Awami League lawmaker and the then UNO of Gobindaganj, was filed nearly three weeks after the eviction of Santals in 2016.

AL lawmaker of Gaibandha-4, Abul Kalam Azad, and former Gobindaganj UNO Abdul Hannan were accused of “ordering” the attack on the indigenous community.

Thomas Hembrom filed the case on behalf of the Shahebganj-Bagda Farm Bhumi Uddhar Sangram Committee.

Shapmara and Katabari unions' chairmen Shakil Akand Bulbul and Rezaul Karim Rafique, managing director of Rangpur Sugar Mills Abdul Awal were accused of taking part in the attack.

Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, Gaibandha Senior additional Superintendent of Police Mohammad Abdul Hai Sarker said they got the autopsy reports and were waiting for the DNA and chemical analysis reports.

A total 25 people have been arrested in the case. One of the arrestees has given a confessional statement, he said, adding that attempts were on to arrest the prime accused.