Members of a fish farmers’ cooperative in Jashore formed a human chain on Sunday (8 November) in front of the deputy commissioner’s office, demanding that the Khatura baor, an oxbow lake in Manirampur upazila, be freed from people they say have seized it by force.
The 101 members of the Khatura Baor Fishermen’s Cooperative Society accuse associates of Abdur Razzak, an Awami League leader and union parishad chairman, of holding the lake. The protest was led by society member Altaf Hossain, and the members submitted a memorandum after it.
Speakers said the lake belongs to the government. The society has run it under a long-term lease taken through the district fisheries officer, under the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock.
They said that after the political changeover of 5 August, a group backed by the chairman took the lake by force. The farmers say they can no longer fish there, that the occupiers stop them from catching fish and threaten to kill them, and that the society’s 101 landless members and their families are living in hardship.
The members called on the administration to step in and free the Khatura baor, their only source of livelihood.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report