High Court stays Kalyanpur slum eviction after locals clash with police

High Court has stayed eviction of a slum at Dhaka’s Kalyanpur for three months amid clash between local residents and police during the drive.

The bench of Justice Tariq ul Hakim and Justice Bhishmadev Chakrabortty gave the order after hearing a plea by rights organisation Ain O Shalish Kendra (ASK).

It also instructed not to evict or harass the slum-dwellers ‘without proper legal processes’.

The public works department was continuing the drive when the court was hearing the matter.

The clash erupted when the public works department started the eviction drive on a 22-acre land around9:30am on Thursday.

Officials gave a two-hour deadline to the dwellers to empty the shanties, which enraged the locals.

A group then armed with sticks started to demonstrate at the main entrance of the slum even as some started moving out with their belongings.

Tension rose as the stand-off continued. Clash and running battles broke out when the demonstrators hurled stones at police.

Locals said that police fired tear-gas canisters to disperse the agitators.

Police said that the land belonged to the public works department.

“A prior notice was given (over the drive). We came here to help the authorities,” Mirpur police OC Bhuiyan Mahbib Hossain told bdnews24.com.

With the help of police the public works department had finally managed to start the drive at one end of the slum around 12pm even as residents continued to demonstrate at the other end.

Demonstrators claimed that a lawsuit was pending over the land and that they had secured a stay order from the court.

But the authorities said they did not get the copy of the court order.