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| Bangladesh is a small country packed with 160 million people, so land disputes are common and it is often the poor who suffer most. (Photo: Rock Ronald Rozario/ucanews) |
Residents in a southern Bangladesh village were
shocked to hear that a violent clash erupted recently between two Catholic
families.
The mob violence was the culmination of a bitter
dispute lasting more than two years over ownership of a small plot of land.
South Haldibunia village is near the country's
second largest port — Mongla in Bagerhat district — and also close to the
Sundarbans mangrove forest, an area covered by St. Paul's Church in Mongla
under Khulna Diocese.
The sense of shock was understandable, happening in
a village where people of various faiths — Catholic Christians, Hindus and
Muslims — have been living peacefully together for decades.
There were mostly only minor injuries on both sides
but one young woman, 28-year-old primary schoolteacher Pronoti Mollick, was
seriously injured.
In fact, she was so badly beaten that doctors at
the state-run health complex in Mongla feared for her life, so Pronoti was
transferred to a better hospital in Khulna city, 50 kilometers away.
One of her former students, Moutushi Talukder,
claimed the attack was planned and that she could have died.
"About 12-13 people beat her up so
mercilessly, kicking her in the face and other parts of the body, that she
vomited blood," Talukder told ucanews. "She was admitted to hospital
in a critical condition but doctors managed to keep her alive. Their family are
innocent but they have suffered terrible pain and been humiliated. They deserve
justice."
Although Pronoti has recovered from her injuries,
she is so fearful of further attacks that she still hasn't returned home or
gone back to work.
She said her family had been fighting to save the
piece of land from being taken by a wealthy and influential Catholic family led
by one man, Tapon Halder, since 2018.
"They continue to threaten us, to burn our
houses, to evict and to kill us," Pronoti told ucanews. "My parents
can't even leave the house because they are so fearing of more attacks. I have
suffered so many injuries that I don't know when I will be able to go back to
work."
Pronoti alleged that the Halder family wielded considerable social and political clout, saying that one of their brothers, Taposh Halder, is a priest and that Bishop Romen Boiragi of Khulna is their cousin.
"They have exploited the local politicians and
government officials to grab our property, which is ancestral and never
belonged to the Church. We could not stop them as we are poor and
powerless," she said.
Following the incident, Pronoti's father, Robin
Mollick, filed a case with Mongla police against 13 people, including nine
members of the Halder family.
Initially, police arrested two women from the
Halder family for being involved in the violence, while others went into
hiding. All the accused have since been granted bail by a court.
"The probe is ongoing and we will submit a
charge sheet soon," Iqbal Bahar Chowdhury, the officer in charge of Mongla
police, told ucanews. "The case was filed under Section 307 of the Penal
Code, which is for attempt to murder, a serious criminal offense. If found
guilty, the accused could get anything from 10 years to life imprisonment."
Counter-allegations
The Halder family say Pronoti's allegations are
fabricated and part of a long-running, ill-motivated campaign to tarnish their
image.
This is a simple land dispute case involving
boundary pillars on the land, but "a vested quarter," which is
envious of the Halders' happy and prosperous life, has been using Pronoti and
her family to defame them over the years, Tapon Halder said.
"The dispute is over a plot of land 4 feet
wide and 30 feet long and four times we conducted land measurements in the
presence of local leaders, including two Union Council [local government body]
chairmen and members, but each time that family refused to accept the
measurements," he said.
"They said that they would arrange for a new
measurement with a government surveyor within three months but more than six
months on nothing has been done. In the meantime, they have hatched a dirty
plan to defame our family to fulfill their demands."
On the day of the recent violence, Oct. 15, a
scuffle started when Pronoti and her mother tried to stop some members of the
Halder family fixing a broken fence. People on both sides sustained minor
injuries during the brawl but there were no major injuries, Tapon Halder
claimed.
However, a doctor at the Mongla health complex,
speaking on condition of anonymity, told ucanews: "Pronoti was admitted in
a critical condition, so the authorities had to transfer her to a better
hospital to be treated."
Tapon Halder said Pronoti had dramatized the
incident and enlisted the help of disingenuous media to garner public sympathy
and support from higher authorities, including the local MP.
"At first, police didn't even want to press
charges but they were forced to accept the case under pressure," he said.
"In 2018, Pronoti filed a false court case against me in Bagerhat for
attempted rape but the police found no grounds for it and it was dismissed.
They continue to pile lies after lies against us."
Tariqul Islam, chairman of Chandpai Union Council,
denied allegations of acting as a collaborator for the Halder family.
"Across the country land disputes are common
and I tried to mediate between two rival groups with a neutral approach,"
he said. "However, the family of Pronoti Mollick stubbornly refused to
accept any solution, which only intensified the problem."
A delicate case for the Church
The Church had tried to mediate for a solution over
the land dispute but it didn't work out, said Father Daniel Mondol, a parish
priest at St. Paul's Church, Mongla, and convener of the Justice and Peace
Commission in Khulna Diocese.
"Over the past two years, according to
instructions from the bishop, we have tried to hold meetings with both parties
but Pronoti's family refused on several occasions," he said.
"Usually, the Church does not get involved in a
social dispute but the image of the Catholic community is at stake and we
wanted to protect it.
"Now that it has become a complex legal issue,
we really can't do much. We tried to solve the problem amicably but the issue
has overtaken the Church and now rests with the legal system."
The allegation of sexual abuse was false and
fabricated, and some media have published baseless information relating to the
incident, the priest said. However, he did admit that Pronoti had been injured
in the violence and said he had visited her in hospital.
Bishop Romen Boiragi of Khulna was unreachable by
phone despite several attempts by ucanews.
Scourge of land dispute
Hunger for land and resulting disputes are very
common in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority country with more 160 million people
crammed into just 147,570 square kilometers of land.
There are more than three million cases registered
in the Bangladesh courts and about 75 percent are directly and indirectly
related to land disputes, according to the Association for Land Reform and
Development, a Dhaka-based land rights group.
In this low-lying river delta country, the shifting
of rivers, an outdated land record system, forgery and corruption are blamed
for many of the disputes. With the legal system still too expensive and with
little help from the government, the poor and marginalized are often denied
justice.
In addition, Bangladesh's paper-based and outdated
land records registration system makes corruption and forgery easy. Landowners
often find that their property has been sold to others without their knowledge
and they are forced to go to court to get the land back.
Cases can linger for years and families are often
forced to spend huge sums to recover their property. This often requires
selling other property, ultimately leaving them landless.
In most cases land disputes involve majority
Muslims against minority Hindus, Christians and Buddhists, so cases of
minorities fighting with each other, as with the Halder and Mollick families,
are rare.
"Sad and tragic though it may sound, the
reality is no community is immune from land disputes," said Father Albert
T. Rozario, a Catholic priest and Supreme Court lawyer, who authored a book on
Christian inheritance law in Bangladesh.
"Catholics in many places have various
problems relating to land. It is destroying family bonds, social integrity,
peace and harmony."
END
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