Santals in Gaibandha’s Gobindaganj are in a state of panic.
After a visit to the area, markets in the Santal-dominated area were found closed and Santal students were seen avoiding going to schools and colleges.
On November 6, police and workers of the Rangpur Sugar Mills clashed with the Santal tribespeople for taking possession of the land acquired for the Rangpur Sugar Mill.
Three Santals were killed and many others injured in the clashes. Some rights groups have even described the incident as a ‘genocide.’
A mob, led by local Awami League MP Abul Kalam Azad (Gaibandha-4) and other local leaders of the ruling party, allegedly set fire to Santal houses on that day.
Many Santal families lost all their possessions in the mayhem. Faced with threats, they are too scared to go to markets, despite fast depletion of food stocks at home.
Santal students are not going to schools and colleges, because they fear attacks. Their annual exams are expected soon but many have lost their textbooks in the November 6 arson.
Ananta Kishuk, a Santal fifth-grader at Shahebganj Farm Govt Primary School, has not gone to school since the November 6 mayhem. It is uncertain whether he can sit for his final exams.
More than a hundred other students in the area face a similar situation. They say they are unable to go to classes because they feel unsafe as Santals are being attacked.
Twenty-year-old Madarpur villager and college student Marina Soren says she is staying home because locals have repeatedly threatened her on way to college.
Madarpur resident Mukhi Murmu says his son Ripon Murmu, a ninth standard student, has stopped going to school after his books were burned.
Another local, Fereza Baske, says her son, fourth-grader Shimanto Murmu, had his books, schoolbag and clothes burned in the mayhem. He has also stopped going to school. Her family has also been robbed of cooking utensils and both their cows, she says.
A local college student told on condition of anonymity that Santal residents have been prevented from buying groceries by attackers, who have stolen their money and cycles.
Another Madarpur resident, Mugul Tudu, says the Santals left the disputed land and returned to their homes after raids by law enforcers. But locals have continued attacks on Santal homes, looting and threatening all the while. So, the Santal residents have been unable to go to school or market.
“They burned down our houses on the farm land,” says 35-year-old housewife Chani Baske. “They burned our clothes, our livestock, our food. We have nothing to eat. On Friday, we had salted tea for breakfast. I don’t know what else we can eat today.”
“We have been trapped since the incident,” says village resident Joba Tudu. “We cannot leave our village. We are all in despair. No one is willing to stand by us.”
“I have had to provide for my family because of my husband’s illness,” says Jaipur neighbourhood resident, 55-year-old Mary Tudu. “But now I am too scared to go anywhere. We have run out of rice at home.”
The local government primary school’s Headmaster Abdul Baki says that almost 60 Santal tribals are students in his school. They have not been attending classes, he says. When he contacted the families to ask why, they told him they do not feel safe going to school since the evictions on Sunday.
Human rights activist Sultana Kamal has said killings and arson attacks ‘backed by the state’ were carried out on the people of Santal tribe to evict them from a land acquired by a sugar mill in Gaibandha.
She says the incident has all the characteristics of a “genocide”
Sultana Kamal was speaking at a press conference jointly organised by three organisations working on indigenous and civil rights.
The former adviser to the military-controlled caretaker government said, “We don’t have words to condemn what happened in Gaibandha’s Bagdafarm area. We have nothing to do but to shiver after seeing such repeated, cruel and inhumane acts.”
She said the government has risked being named ‘as a conductor of genocide by intentionally’ using ways like killings, looting and arson attacks to evict a tribe. “The government announced that there are no indigenous people in this country. Now they are out to prove their claim. They want to make the country free from indigenous people by any means,” Sultana added.
The members of the Santal tribe in the area clashed with police and the workers of Rangpur Sugar Mill who on Nov 6 came to evict them from 1,842 acres of land acquired by the authorities. The workers also started clearing sugarcane from the land cultivated by the tribal people.
At least three persons of the tribe have died in the clash. No case over the deaths has been started yet. Police have arrested four people in a case they initiated against 350 people over the clash.
The organizers of the press conference at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity said on Friday that four Santal tribesmen died in the clash and some others were still missing.
They reported Awami League MP from Gobindaganj, Abdul Kalam Azad, and other local leaders of the ruling party and its affiliates led the arson attacks on Santal properties and firm land.
They demanded judicial investigation into the incident, and rehabilitation and compensation for the evicted people.
Bangladesh Adibasi Forum General Secretary Sanjeeb Drong read out a written statement at the conference.
Source: Santals in panic after Gaibandha clash
Sultana Kamal compares deadly Santal eviction in Gaibandha to ‘genocide’