Gaibandha sugar mill clash
Santhal community complains of insecurity
Our Correspondent, Gaibandha
The indigenous Santhal community of Gobindoganj in Gaibandha district is feeling insecure following a clash between the police, land-grabbers and Santhals in the Baghda area on Sunday. The clash broke out when the Santhals protested against grabbing of their lands by sugar mill workers with the help of the police. The minority people alleged that after the clash, people of neighbouring villages looted their houses. However, the police and peoples representatives said they have taken measures for peoples security.
A Santhal was killed and 30 people, including nine policemen, were injured. On Tuesday, the body of another Santhal was found following a clash over a land dispute. The police found the body in a crop field in the Baghda Farm area. Santhals alleged that five of their people are still missing. Attackers torched a number of houses of the Santhals in the presence of policemen, they claimed. They also said that since Monday their houses are being looted. However, Subrata Kumar Sarker, OC of Gobindoganj police station, said they had not received such complaints.
Santhals claim they are the owners of the land. In 1954, the government acquired 1,842 acres of land from Santhals for the sugar mill under a contract that only sugarcane could be cultivated there. However, they have long been in dispute over the land after the mill authorities started leasing out the land to locals for cultivation of rice and other crops violating the contract, they alleged.
