Staff Reporter :
The High Court (HC) on Wednesday directed the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Gaibandha to investigate if police were involved in setting fire to the houses of Santal community during a clash that took place in the cane farm of Rangpur Sugar Mills in Gobindaganj Upazila of Gaibandha district over harvesting sugarcane.
The HC bench of Justice Obaidul Hassan and Justice Krishna Debnath passed the order asking the Chief Judicial Magistrate to submit the report within 15 days.
Earlier in the morning, Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) filed a supplementary petition attaching some national and international media reports and images, where police were seen to set fire to a house, seeking the court order to carry out an investigation to identify the arson attackers.
The court also directed the police to conduct the investigation into the two cases, filed on November 17 and 26 against 600 and 33 identified and unidentified people respectively over the same issue, same status.
It instructed the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Rangpur Range to convey the charge of the investigation to a senior officer of the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) under the supervision of a police official not below than the rank of Superintendent of Police (SP). On November 26, Santals of Gaibandha filed a case against 33 men, including a local Awami League MP Principal Abul Kalam Azad and the UNO of Gobindaganj Abdul Hannan on charge of provoking an attack on the community on November 6.
On November 17, Swapan Murmu, a member of the community, filed another case against 600 people on charge of attacking the community. The clash on November 6 took place in cane farm of Rangpur Sugar Mills located in Gobindaganj Upazila of Gaibandha over harvesting sugarcane. The clash left three Santals dead and 25 people, including nine cops, injured.
