Martyr's family cries foul

Language Movement martyr Abul Barkat's family has complained of an extortion bid by a ward councillor of the Gazipur City Corporation.

Barkat’s nephew Ain-Uddin has lodged a complaint with the Deputy Commissioner of Gazipur against the Councilor of Ward No. 56, Safar Ali.

Ali, however, flatly rejected the allegation, saying the members of the Language Movement hero’s family had illegally grabbed government land.

On the basis of a permanent settlement, the Bangladesh Government in 1981 gave a 68-decimal plot, at Naljani Mouja, in Gazipur, to Barkat's mother Hasina Bibi, who had her ancestral home in Murshidabad district in the Indian state of West Bengal.

Barkat's nephew Ain-Uddin has been living on the plot after Hasina Bibi’s death.

Ain-Uddin, in his complaint to the DC, claimed that councillor Safar Ali was trying to oust him from the land and extort money.

Ain-Uddin told bdnews24.com that after his grandmother Hasina Bibi died in 1981, she was buried in that land in keeping with a government decision. Subsequently, the government passed on the ownership of the plot to him.

He said he had set up a small shop on a portion of the land to earn a living.

"Recently, when I tried to get a RS (Revisional Survey) mutation and change the record of the land's ownership, Councilor Safar Ali came in the way, alleging the nature of the land had been changed. He also filed petitions to the DC and the Assistant Commissioner (Land) to prevent the RS mutation and change of the land records.

Language warrior Barkat's family claimed that the Councilor demanded money from them to withdraw the petition. They said they were feeling insecure and sought the government’s intervention.

Safar Ali, however, told bdnews24.com that those living on the land were not the successors of martyr Barkat's mother Hasina Bibi and that they had grabbed the government land.

In this regard, Ain-Uddin said that they were the actual successors of Hasina Bibi and that he regularly drew the government allowances given in the name of martyr Abul Barkat.

He said that the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina awarded Language hero Barkat with the Ekushey Padak (posthumously) in 2000 and that the award was later handed over to Ain-Uddin's elder brother Alauddin Barkat after scrutiny.