Dear Friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the Bangladesh Police have opened fire and thrown sound grenades and tear gas at protestors of Gondamara Village, in Banshkhali Upazilla of Chittagong, on 16 May 2016. During the operation, the police arrested Mr. Dudu Mian (70), father to Mr. Liakat Ali, Convenor of the Committee to Protect Homestead and Graveyard in Banshkhali. At least 15 people have sustained bullet injuries and the police have tortured over 30 others. This is the second time in six weeks for police brutality in the area.
Previously, on 5 April, police shot and killed four and injured dozens, including men, women and children. The families of wounded victims have refused to disclose identities as the police are arresting victims in the blanket case filed by the police against 3,200 unnamed villagers. Filing of such a case means that any person can get entangled in the police net of bribery, torture, and arbitrary detention. Please help stop the authoritarian government from ruining the people’s lives.
CASE NARRATIVE:
Police atrocities against the inhabitants of Gondamara Village began on 3 April 2016. The villagers were protesting since mid-February 2016, as there have been reports published in the media that the government of Bangladesh had signed agreements with the S. Alam Group (a Bangladeshi company), SEPCO Electrical Power Construction (a Chinese company), and HTG Group (a US company), to construct a joint-venture coal-fueled energy project. The agreement was signed on 16 February 2016.
The villagers of Gondamara and surrounding areas began protesting against the project since the deal was signed. They claim that the S. Alam Group put forward its companies – Genesis Textiles Groceries and Apparels Ltd., and S. Alam Vegetable Oil Ltd. to purchase land for “establishing factory for edible oil and textile mills”. They also assured that there will be employment opportunities for the people of the area. At the time of purchasing around 600 acres of land from the local inhabitants, mostly farmers of salt, shrimp, and paddy, the S. Alam Group did not reveal that it wanted to establish a coal-fueled power plant, which causes enormous negative impact on the environment.
Continuous protests of villagers and demands for shifting the coal-fueled power plant from Gondamara to another location became the key issue for ordinary people, while a small group of ruling politicians and opposition leaders sided with the S. Alam Group. The villagers started guarding their lands that were being used for cultivation of paddy, and the farming of shrimps and salt in the area. They formed a Committee to Protect Homestead and Graveyard.
On the early hours of 4 April 20016, the police arrested seven men who were guarding the area, stationed on a bridge, one of the key entry points to the village. These seven person’s arrest sparked outrage among the villagers and intensified the protests against the power plant.
The residents called for a meeting at 3 p.m. on 4 April, to demand the release of the seven detainees. At around 1 p.m., suddenly, a few hundred people wearing police uniforms and carrying guns raided the villages. They came in police vehicles and motorbikes. Many of the uniformed gunmen were wearing masks on their faces. They started firing at the villagers, unmindful of whether they were shooting workers on the agricultural farms or women involved in household activities, or children.
Mr. Mortuza Ali, a salt-farmer, was killed in police firing while he was eating snacks at a tea-stall in the village, according to the eyewitnesses. His brother Anowarul Islam alias Angur was injured when shot by the people wearing police uniforms. The police prevented relatives of the Angur to take him to a hospital. Subsequently, Angur died of extensive bleeding from his wounds. Mortuza’s son-in-law, Zager Ahmed, and one Mr. Zaker Hossain, died following being shot as well.
According to human rights defenders who visited the crime scenes, around one hundred people have been injured by the shootings and torture inflicted by the policemen. And, most of the wounded victims have gone into hiding due to the fear of further harassment by law-enforcement agencies. The reasons behind such fear include incidents where the injured victims have been arrested from their hospital beds. Two of the bullet-ridden victims were seen handcuffed at the Chittagong Medical College Hospital while receiving treatment. The police implicated them in a case registered by the police in connection to the incident of police firing. Since the incident, the police are looking for wounded victims to detain them in relation to the case.
Six weeks since the first incidence of police firing in the area, there was another raid in the village on 16 May 2016. The police went into the houses of the villagers to find male members. They tortured the women and children for being unable to provide the whereabouts of male family members in hiding. On this occasion, the police again opened fire against the people indiscriminately, resulting at least 15 being injured with gunshots. More than 30 others were injured due to police torture.
As the entire area has been virtually empty of men, the police found and arrested a 70-year-old man, Mr. Dudu Mian, who is father to Mr. Liakat Ali, Convenor of the Committee to Protect Homestead and Graveyard. The police arrested Dudu Mian, put a firearm in his hand, and detained him in a fabricated case of illegal possession of a firearm. Dudu Mian is also shown as arrested under the pending case, which was registered at the Banshkhali Police Station against 3,200 unnamed villagers.
A governmental probe committee report has charged Liakat Ali for “misguiding” the people against the development projects. Liakat, a former Chairman of the Gondamara Union Council, the local governmental body, has informed the people that the government has not conducted any Environmental Impact Assessment before deciding on the coal-fueled power plant project. Instead, the government and the S. Alam Group and their Chinese and US partners have hidden the information regarding the project.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
The officials of the Department of Land in the Government of Bangladesh lied in a report submitted to the higher authorities regarding the coal-fueled power plant. For example, there are more than 7,000 households in the proposed project area while the government report claimed that only 150 families exist there.
Successive governments of Bangladesh use the electricity crisis as one of the excuses to indulge in corruption. In 2010, the incumbent government made a new law titled the Power and Energy Fast Supply Enhancement (Special Provision) Act, 2010. This law allows the government to sanction anyone or any company of their choice to construct a power plant in the country without any tender or bidding process. The law grants impunity to the government and the companies in doing, not doing, or undoing the agreed upon work. The process is officially known as “quick rental of electricity”.
Subsequently, those supportive of the ruling party, who did not have any justifiable experience, got contracts for establishing power plants in the country. Most of these companies have not proved their capacity to generate electricity, as opposed to what is pledged in the agreements. The government has paid a higher price than that levied by public power-generating entities to purchase electricity against the claims of the companies. It has never transparently confirmed the availability of the amount of electricity for what the people’s tax money is spent.
Moreover, the quick rental companies have acquired huge amounts of public land at throwaway prices throughout the process. The energy sector experts have alleged that millions of dollars have been embezzled by ruling party politicians and their local and international allies throughout the process.
SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the Bangladeshi authorities to stop harassing the innocent ordinary people of Banskhali. Kindly insist that they should ensure release of all the persons detained in the fabricated cases.
The AHRC is writing a separate letter to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises; Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment; Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context, calling for their interventions into this matter.
To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear ……………….,
BANGLADESH: Police attack, torture, and kill villagers to facilitate land grab
Name of victims (Extrajudicially killed):
1. Mr. Anowarul Islam alias Angur (60)
2. Mr. Mortuza Ali (50), brother of Anowarul Islam Angur
3. Mr. Zager Ahmed (35), son-in-law of Murtaza Ali
4. Mr. Zaker Hossain (50)
Name of victims (Shot):
1. Mr. Mozibur Rahman: a bullet pierced the right side of his face and exited through the left side; he stayed in Chittagong Medical College Hospital for 20 days to receive treatment; he has lost five of his teeth and is unable to speak or eat food.
2. Mr. Dudu Mian: 70-years-old, inhabitant of Gondamara Village, Banshkhali, Chittagong
3. Around 150 injured victims are hiding, to escape further police atrocities and harassments
Names of alleged perpetrators:
1. Police of Chittagong District;
2. S. Alam Group and its musclemen
3. Department of Land
Date of incident: 4 April 2016 and 16 May 2016
Place of incident: Gondamara, Banskhali upazilla in Chittagong district
I am writing to voice my deep concern regarding the extrajudicial executions of four above mentioned persons and injuring around 150 people by police firing on two occasions at Gondamara in Banskhali upazilla of Chittagong district in Bangladesh.
The Asian Human Rights Commission has learned that police atrocities against the inhabitants of Gondamara Village began on 3 April 2016. The villagers were protesting since mid-February 2016, as there have been reports published in the media that the government of Bangladesh had signed agreements with the S. Alam Group (a Bangladeshi company), SEPCO Electrical Power Construction (a Chinese company), and HTG Group (a US company), to construct a joint-venture coal-fueled energy project. The agreement was signed on 16 February 2016.
The villagers of Gondamara and surrounding areas began protesting against the project since the deal was signed. They claim that the S. Alam Group put forward its companies – Genesis Textiles Groceries and Apparels Ltd., and S. Alam Vegetable Oil Ltd. to purchase land for “establishing factory for edible oil and textile mills”. They also assured that there will be employment opportunities for the people of the area. At the time of purchasing around 600 acres of land from the local inhabitants, mostly farmers of salt, shrimp, and paddy, the S. Alam Group did not reveal that it wanted to establish a coal-fueled power plant, which causes enormous negative impact on the environment.
Continuous protests of villagers and demands for shifting the coal-fueled power plant from Gondamara to another location became the key issue for ordinary people, while a small group of ruling politicians and opposition leaders sided with the S. Alam Group. The villagers started guarding their lands that were being used for cultivation of paddy, and the farming of shrimps and salt in the area. They formed a Committee to Protect Homestead and Graveyard.
On the early hours of 4 April 20016, the police arrested seven men who were guarding the area, stationed on a bridge, one of the key entry points to the village. These seven person’s arrest sparked outrage among the villagers and intensified the protests against the power plant.
The residents called for a meeting at 3 p.m. on 4 April, to demand the release of the seven detainees. At around 1 p.m., suddenly, a few hundred people wearing police uniforms and carrying guns raided the villages. They came in police vehicles and motorbikes. Many of the uniformed gunmen were wearing masks on their faces. They started firing at the villagers, unmindful of whether they were shooting workers on the agricultural farms or women involved in household activities, or children.
Mr. Mortuza Ali, a salt-farmer, was killed in police firing while he was eating snacks at a tea-stall in the village, according to the eyewitnesses. His brother Anowarul Islam alias Angur was injured when shot by the people wearing police uniforms. The police prevented relatives of the Angur to take him to a hospital. Subsequently, Angur died of extensive bleeding from his wounds. Mortuza’s son-in-law, Zager Ahmed, and one Mr. Zaker Hossain, died following being shot as well.
According to human rights defenders who visited the crime scenes, around one hundred people have been injured by the shootings and torture inflicted by the policemen. And, most of the wounded victims have gone into hiding due to the fear of further harassment by law-enforcement agencies. The reasons behind such fear include incidents where the injured victims have been arrested from their hospital beds. Two of the bullet-ridden victims were seen handcuffed at the Chittagong Medical College Hospital while receiving treatment. The police implicated them in a case registered by the police in connection to the incident of police firing. Since the incident, the police are looking for wounded victims to detain them in relation to the case.
Six weeks since the first incidence of police firing in the area, there was another raid in the village on 16 May 2016. The police went into the houses of the villagers to find male members. They tortured the women and children for being unable to provide the whereabouts of male family members in hiding. On this occasion, the police again opened fire against the people indiscriminately, resulting at least 15 being injured with gunshots. More than 30 others were injured due to police torture.
As the entire area has been virtually empty of men, the police found and arrested a 70-year-old man, Mr. Dudu Mian, who is father to Mr. Liakat Ali, Convenor of the Committee to Protect Homestead and Graveyard. The police arrested Dudu Mian, put a firearm in his hand, and detained him in a fabricated case of illegal possession of a firearm. Dudu Mian is also shown as arrested under the pending case, which was registered at the Banshkhali Police Station against 3,200 unnamed villagers.
A governmental probe committee report has charged Liakat Ali for “misguiding” the people against the development projects. Liakat, a former Chairman of the Gondamara Union Council, the local governmental body, has informed the people that the government has not conducted any Environmental Impact Assessment before deciding on the coal-fueled power plant project. Instead, the government and the S. Alam Group and their Chinese and US partners have hidden the information regarding the project.
The officials of the Department of Land in the Government of Bangladesh lied in a report submitted to the higher authorities regarding the coal-fueled power plant. For example, there are more than 7,000 households in the proposed project area while the government report claimed that only 150 families exist there.
Successive governments of Bangladesh use the electricity crisis as one of the excuses to indulge in corruption. In 2010, the incumbent government made a new law titled the Power and Energy Fast Supply Enhancement (Special Provision) Act, 2010. This law allows the government to sanction anyone or any company of their choice to construct a power plant in the country without any tender or bidding process. The law grants impunity to the government and the companies in doing, not doing, or undoing the agreed upon work. The process is officially known as “quick rental of electricity”.
Subsequently, those supportive of the ruling party, who did not have any justifiable experience, got contracts for establishing power plants in the country. Most of these companies have not proved their capacity to generate electricity, as opposed to what is pledged in the agreements. The government has paid a higher price than that levied by public power-generating entities to purchase electricity against the claims of the companies. It has never transparently confirmed the availability of the amount of electricity for what the people’s tax money is spent.
Moreover, the quick rental companies have acquired huge amounts of public land at throwaway prices throughout the process. The energy sector experts have alleged that millions of dollars have been embezzled by ruling party politicians and their local and international allies throughout the process.
As a matter of fact, the victims in the present circumstances cannot afford judicial remedy, even more so now that the incumbent government has subjugated the entire criminal justice mechanism.
The coal-fueled power plant, if implemented, will cause serious damage to the ecological and environmental stability in the area. It will also cause a serious negative impact on the life, lifestock, and livelihood of the local people, a large number of whom are landless day labourers working in agricultural farms that grow paddy, salt, and shrimp. A segment of the people, who live by fishing in the bay adjacent to the area, will also be in occupational crisis as a result of the pollution to the sea and river waters.
I request the international experts of human rights, particularly the Special Procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council, to urgently intervene into the matter so that:
1. The arbitrarily detained people are immediately released;
2. The fabricated cases against the ordinary villagers are dropped without any further harassment;
3. The coal-fueled power plant is scrapped for the sake of saving the life of the people, livestock, and ecological stability;
4. The lands acquired by the S. Alam Group through untrue claims and endorsed by distorted reports from the Department of Land are returned to their original owners.
Yours Sincerely,
……………….
PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:
1. Mr. Md. Abdul Hamid
President of People’s Republic of Bangladesh
President’s Office
Bangabhaban, Dhaka
BANGLADESH
Tel: +880 2 9568041-50
Fax: +88-02-9585502 (Secretary)
Email: president@bangabhaban.gov.bd
2. Mr. Surendra Kumar Sinha
Chief Justice of Bangladesh
Supreme Court of Bangladesh
Dhaka 1000
BANGLADESH
Fax: +880 2 956 5058 /+880 2 7161344
Tel: +880 2 956 2792
E-mail: chief@bdcom.com or supremec@bdcom.com
3. Chairperson
National Human Rights Commission
Gulfeshan Plaza (11th Floor)
8, Sohid Sangbadik Saleena Parvin Sorok
Mogbazar, Dhaka-1217
BANGLADESH
Tel: +880 2 9335513
Fax: +880 2 8333219
E-mail: nhrc.bd@gmail.com
Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia)
