Thousands of trees felled over land dispute in Panchagarh

Miscreants felled a total of 16,000 trees including tea, mango and betel nut over a five bigha land in Tetulia upazila of Panchagarh because of personal rivalry.

A gang of 40-50 hired goons came in with machetes and felled the trees at Dorjipara of the upazila early hours of Monday. They also set ablaze house of the caretaker, causing a loss of Tk20-25 lakh.

The land belongs to Md Moniruzzaman Omar, retired army personnel from Colony para in Sadar upazila.

On information, Tetulia Fire Service rushed to the spot and brought the fire under control. However, the miscreants managed to flee after police reached the spot.

Earlier in 2011, Moniruzzaman purchased the five bigha of land. For the last six to 16 months, he raised the garden of tea, mango, bay leaf and betel nut. Since then, one Shaheb Ali of the adjacent village ‘Kankata’ was claiming the land as his own.

Tetulia police station Inspector Abu Sayeed Chowdhury and Record Officer of Sadar ‘Mahafezkhana’ submitted a report mentioning that they didn’t find any validity with the land document through which Shaheb Ali claimed the ownership of the land.

Moniruzzaman lodged a case at the Judicial Magistrate Court of Cognizance Court-4 alleging the use of faked land documents and felling of various trees.

Meanwhile, the accused Shaheb Ali denied the allegations against him saying, “There is dispute centring the land and there are several ongoing cases at the court in this regard.

Tetulia Model police station OC Jahurul Islam said he heard about the incident of felling of trees. However, he declined to comment before conducting an investigation.