Grabbers made a new attempt to seize land along the Bakkhali river in Cox’s Bazar town on the night of February 11 by setting up approximately 30 temporary shelters. Some of these shelters were still under construction when the site was visited the next day.
The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) has reached out to the district administration, law enforcement agencies, and other relevant bodies, urging them to take immediate action in response to this encroachment.
According to Md Abdul Wakil, the port officer of BIWTA in Cox’s Bazar, the encroachers took advantage of law enforcement’s focus on election duties to reclaim the land. He mentioned that over 30 makeshift structures had already been built, with more in progress.
BIWTA had conducted an eviction operation in the Kasturaghat area along the river last year, removing about 497 temporary and permanent structures to reclaim approximately 63 acres of land. However, their attempt to establish boundary markers was met with resistance from individuals associated with the encroachers, leading to the operation’s suspension. In response, BIWTA filed three cases, and the police filed one case against 40 identified and several unidentified individuals involved.
Illegal construction activities resumed between the Kasturaghat river port and the Kurushkul new bridge along the river, just prior to the election night. Activists from the Cox’s Bazar town unit of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal intervened by demolishing several of the structures upon learning about the attempted land grab.
Shafayet Munna, a former joint secretary of the Cox’s Bazar town JCD unit, stated that they acted on instructions from newly elected lawmaker Lutfur Rahman Kajol to remove the illegal constructions. He emphasized that the individuals previously evicted were trying to exploit the name of the BNP party to reclaim the land, asserting that no unauthorized structures would be tolerated along the riverbank.
