Phulbari protesters block roads, railway

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The indefinite strike in Phulbari of Dinajpur seeking ouster of the Asia Energy continued for the third consecutive day yesterday while the government has yet to take measures to meet the six-point demand of the locals.

The demonstrators refused to sit with the local administration yesterday. Instead, they opted to wait for the government to send a high-powered body to resolve the issue.

Meanwhile, Rajshahi City Corporation Mayor Mizanur Rahman Minu and Deputy Minister for Food and Disaster Management Asadul Habib Dulu arrived in Dinajpur last night to find a way of reconciliation with the demonstrators.

However, the demonstrators have yet to respond to the their call for reconciliation as they are trying to figure out whether the mayor and the deputy minister are there as emissaries of the government.

Minu and Dulu had a meeting with the local administration last night after which Minu told journalists that they will meet the leaders of the movement today at Amtoli. The leaders of the movement however said the meeting was not finalised. They said they will have an internal meeting of their own this morning where they will decide whether they will meet the mayor and the deputy minister.

Thousands of women and children yesterday joined the demonstrations for punishment to the persons responsible for the August 26 incident. Bangladesh Rifles and police that day opened fire on the locals agitating against open-pit coalmining in Phulbari leaving at least five dead and scores injured.

Meanwhile, in the name of flushing out ‘collaborators’ of the British company, some locals yesterday looted houses in Phulbari town and adjoining villages.

COMMUNICATIONS STILL DISRUPTED
The demonstrators kept barricading roads and railways with logs and burning tyres and as a result the town remained isolated from other places for three days in a row.

Four express trains–Rupsha, Titumir, Barendra, and Simanta–could not operate on its regular route via Phulbari yesterday.

Ekata and Drutojan Expresses however continued service by going through Rangpur.

Besides, rail communications between Parbatipur and Birampur and road links between Birampur and Nababganj were still snapped.

‘BDR UNWANTED’
The agitating locals yesterday declared that they will not cooperate with the BDR personnel in Phulbari in protest at the Saturday’s firing that, according to unconfirmed reports, left seven dead and more than 300 injured.

The declaration came from a rally at Nimtola Crossing. Thousands of people took part in processions culminating into a huge rally yesterday morning.

“We are boycotting the BDR in the town and will not help them in any activities,” said Manik Sarker, secretary of Phulbari Banik Samity [traders association]. The rickshaw-van pullers association supported the declaration of non-cooperation with the paramilitary force.

At one stage, thousands of participants raised their hands and vowed not to return home until the government concedes their demands.

DEATH COUNT
The actual number of people died in police-BDR actions on August 26 could not be known even in three days after the incident.

The local administration kept putting the death toll at three while the Committee for Protection of Oil-Gas-Mineral Resources-Port Phulbari unit claimed the number to be seven.

“If they could give me definite names and addresses, and locations of the bodies they claimed to have been dumped, I will do everything necessary to recover those,” Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Hossain Sarwar told The Daily Star yesterday.

Since the firing incident, the locals have maintained that the BDR men took away several bodies from the spot.

PRESS CONFERENCE
The Phulbari unit of the Committee yesterday said they will not sit with the local administration for negotiation.

“The government must send a high-powered body to Phulbari for talks with the locals and the Committee leaders,” said Zonayed Saki, central coordinator of the five-left party and central member of the national committee for protection of natural resources and port.

The demands include a government declaration banning coalmining in Phulbaria, compensation for the victims’ families and medical expenses for the injured, withdrawal of the cases filed so far against the protesters, and punishment to the persons responsible for Saturday’s incident.

Later In the evening, the Committee held a rally at Nimtola Crossing. It demanded that the BDR return by the next 24 hours the four bodies that, it alleged, the paramilitary force took away from the scene on August 26.

The speakers at the rally also called for a plaque to be built in memory of those perished.

LOOTING
A marauding group of locals yesterday morning looted a number of houses in Phulbari and nearby villages.

When asked, one of those looting a house at Uttar Sujapur said, “Almost everyone has taken something, why shouldn’t I?”

Sources said some of the demonstrators had threatened to force one Abdul Rahman Kalam out of Patrapara area by yesterday noon. But the police warded off attacks on his house.

The local committee and organisers of the movement however are appealing to the people to refrain from looting and attacking others. One of the organisers admitted that some quarters are out to exploit the situation for personal gains.

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