A rally was held on Friday at Joy Bangla Bazar in Mymensingh Sadar upazila to protest against the proposed land acquisition. Chhatra Jubo Sangram Parishad, a forum of char students and youths, organised the rally.

Reiterating their demand for a fair list for the development of divisional activities, speakers at Friday’s rally asserted that if their demands, which include the acceptance of an "alternative list" given by the "char" people, are not met, they will resist the administration’s efforts to carry out its survey of the proposed area.

“If our demands are not met shortly, we'll go in for a more intensive movement in future, including besieging the divisional commissioner’s office,” said the speakers.

“We're ready to foil ‘the deep-rooted conspiracy’ on the part of ‘influential quarters’ and save our homesteads and farmlands from them,” they told the rally.

The speakers also referred to an earlier statement of the divisional commissioner, wherein he said the first list of 1,220 acres of land, involving Mymensingh Sadar’s China Moor area, had to be changed fearing “earthquake risk, serious waterlogging and traffic congestion” at the area and not to save the lands of some secretaries. Through this statement, it is clear that influential persons have lands in the area and so the first list was scrapped to save their lands, they alleged. Not because of the risk of earthquakes, the list was scrapped in the interests of a handful of persons and the char people would never accept the victimisation of some 60,000 people, they also said.

“If the administration chooses to apply force, it'd be responsible for any untoward incident,” they also warned.

In protest against the “unfair” and “motivated” land acquisition in Mymensingh division, thousands of char people of six villages in Mymensingh Sadar upazila have been continuing their movement for the past 10 months under the banner of ‘Basatbhita Rokhha Committee’.

The administration first prepared a list of 1,220 acres of land for the development of the division, but the list was later scrapped and the proposed list of 4,366 acres was released for reasons best known to the authorities, they said.

Urging the administration to free their century-old homesteads from the acquisition list, they also demanded a balanced development involving four unions alongside the Old Brahmaputra river.

Rejecting the district administration’s recent proposal for “rehabilitation of the affected people” for building the new city, they also said such a move would make the char people refugees.

Presided over by Sangram Parishad president Kazi Rashidul Islam, the rally was also addressed by Sohanur Rahman, Papel Khan, Golam Kibria, Prof. Syed Mosharraf Hossain, Shahidul Islam, Bangladesh Trade Union Kendra (Mymensingh) secretary Tofazzol Hossain as well as others.