The slum dwellers attacked and hurled brickbats on a joint eviction team of Bangladesh Railway (BR) and Government Railway Police (GRP) while they were evicting illegal establishments adjacent to the rail lines from the city’s Moghbazar, Malibagh and Khilgaon areas on Sunday.At least 1,000 illegal shops and settlements were evicted on the third day on Sunday. The drive was started from Karwan Bazar Kitchen Market area on Friday following a rail tragedy there on Thursday. At least four persons were killed and five others critically injured on the fateful day.Kamlapur Police Station’s Sub-Inspector (SI) and operation officer Rafiqul Islam said that the slum dwellers attacked them as they thought that the drive was being conducted to evict only the slums. But, the drive was conducted to evict all illegal structures, including illegal shops and settlements, in the rail line areas. He said that they had attacked the eviction team following misleading, fake and provocative information spread by a vested group there. “We will bring down illegal shops and structures in the northern part soon after completing the eviction in the south part of the Railway Department,” Rafiqul said.Dhaka Railway Police Officer-in-Charge (OC) Abdul Mazid confirmed the matter and said that the joint drive was started at 9:00am and continued till 2:00pm. Around 1,000 illegal shops and settlements were evicted in the drive on the third day on Sunday. The BR’s Divisional Estate Officer Nurunnabi Kabir said that the drives would continue until the rail tracks are “freed from grabbers.”He said that the BR authorities have already deployed several patrolling teams in the evicted areas so that the grabbers could not re-establish their settlements. On the first day of the drive, around 140 shops and slums by the rail track from the Film Development Corporation (FDC) gate to Tejgaon Railway Station were brought down. Around 350 makeshift establishments along the rail tracks in the capital’s Malibagh area were evicted on the second day of the drive, sources said.
