Sitakunda slum dwellers arrested on their way to Dhaka

Police have arrested a number of Alinagar Chhinnomul slum dwellers in Chattogram in connection with the clash with law enforcers that took place last week during an eviction drive.

Police arrested 61 dwellers of the slum at Jungle Salimpur on Sunday where they were heading for Dhaka in two buses to inform the prime minister of the firing incident to evict them, Inspector Sumon Bonik of Sitakunda Police Station told The Business Standard.

Later on, police produced 22 of them in court, showing them accused in several cases and releasing the rest.

Another nine slum dwellers were arrested from a pre-scheduled press briefing Sunday afternoon at the Chattogram Press Club in protest at the eviction at Alinagar and firing on them. 

Two teams of police from Kotwali and Sitakunda police stations led by the District Executive Magistrate Towhidul Islam arrested them and handed them over to the Kotwali police.  

Meanwhile, denying the claims made by the police regarding the arrest of 61 people, Mizanur Rahman, a resident of Jungle Salimpur slum, told TBS that around 50 people were seriously injured by rubber bullets fired by the police on Thursday during an eviction drive in Salimpur. The local administration snapped the power connection to the area a month before the drive. 

"Vehicles carrying food and fuel were not allowed to enter. So 63 of us, all residents of the slums, left for Dhaka in two buses to inform the prime minister about these developments. But they were arrested on their way to the PMO," he said, adding each of them has been shown accused in seven to eight cases.

Meanwhile, a group of slum dwellers managed to reach Dhaka, avoiding the police blockade, and attended a press conference at the National Press Club in the capital Sunday.

They urged the premier's intervention to ensure proper rehabilitation of the 24,000 families of the Jungle Salimpur slums.

They also alleged that the eviction drive was carried out in defiance of a High Court (HC) order and the police opened fire on the slum dwellers without any provocation.

A high-level government meeting is scheduled to be held at the PMO today (12 September) regarding the implementation of various projects at Jungle Salimpur.

On the arrest of nine slum dwellers from a press conference, Human Rights Activists Nur Khan Liton told TBS that there is an issue of rehabilitation before evicting any citizen from his or her home. There are directives of the High Court on the issue. It is unfortunate that a magistrate has arrested people from a press conference ignoring all the directives. 

At least 30 people, including a member of Bangladesh Ansar, were injured when police fired rubber bullets to disperse protesters during an eviction drive at Salimpur slums.

Around one lakh homeless people had been living in the settlements built on 850 acres of khas land at Jungle Salimpur and Alinagar near the port city.  Most of them lost their ancestral homes due to climate change-induced disasters.   

In 2004, the then government sheltered these homeless people in the area after evicting them from various slums in Chattogram city.