Reiterating their demand for a fair list, the ‘char’ people have alleged that the list released by the administration last year is ‘unfair’ and ‘motivated’, aimed at evicting hundreds of families from seven villages in Mymensingh Sadar upazila. Since the release of the acquisition list, the char inhabitants have joined in protest in their thousands, bringing out processions and rallies, erecting road blockades and hoisting black flags, say sources.

At a protest rally held on Tuesday at Joy Bangla Bazar, in Char Sirta union, organised by the ‘Basatbhita Rokhha Committee’, the char people said, they had been protesting for the last one year against the local administration’s land acquisition move but the authorities had paid no heed to their legitimate demands.

They also said at the rally that the administration had first prepared a list of 1,220 acres of land for divisional development. But it was later cancelled and a new list, proposing the acquisition of 4,366 acres, was released.

They said the acquisition area of 4366 acres included vast tracts of farmland and households, owned mostly by small and marginal farmers, and sharecroppers. There would be a “gross violation of human rights” if the fresh list were implemented, speakers at the rally

claimed.

They also alleged that the fresh list was a “blue print” for serving the interest of influential quarters and no one was listening to the char people.

“We will continue the protest until death to protect our homesteads and farmlands and frustrate the administration’s evil design,” they declared.

Demanding a balanced development involving four unions alongside the Old Brahmaputra River, they also said that there were vast tracts of ‘khas’ and vacant land on both sides of the Old Brahmaputra and the administration should use that land on a priority basis.

The char people said the new list involved some 60,000 people, 17,000 families and 28,000 households, 475 family graveyard, six public graveyards, 30 government and non-government primary schools, three high schools, 47 mosques, four temples, six Eidgah grounds and other establishments.

The affected comprised seven villages—Char Ishwardia, Char Gobindapur, Char Anandipur, Char Bhawanipur, Char Durgapur and Laxmir Algi—said the speakers.

Committee convener Prof Syed Mosharraf Hossain, Awami League leader Shahidul Islam, Mohammad Shahjahan Sarker, Dr Harun-or-Rashid, Nadim Mustafa, and Golam Kibria addressed the rally, among others with Kazi Rafiqul Islam, committee’s joint-convener in the chair.