NILPHAMARI — At least 20 people, including a union parishad chairman, police officers and journalists, were injured when they were attacked while trying to stop the illegal extraction of stones from the Teesta River using bomb machines in Dimla upazila of Nilphamari, officials said. The attack took place around midday Thursday on a Teesta River shoal in the Khoribari area, upstream of the Teesta Barrage in Tepakhoribari union.
Among those seriously injured were Rabiul Islam Shahin, chairman of the Tepakhoribari Union Parishad, and a village police member identified as Zahidul. Both were sent to Rangpur Medical College Hospital in critical condition.
According to police and local sources, an influential group had been operating 20 to 25 illegal bomb machines about a kilometer upstream of the Teesta Barrage for a long time, extracting stones and sand. The operation has threatened the river embankment, agricultural land, homesteads and the local environment.
Union parishad chairman Shahin went to the site Thursday morning with local residents to stop the extraction. As he tried to intervene, stone traders, machine owners and laborers banded together and attacked the chairman and villagers with sticks and locally made weapons, officials said.
The area remains tense after the attack. Residents allege that the influential group has been destroying the river for years by evading administrative oversight.
Local residents said the chairman was attacked in a planned manner because he had come forward to protect the river and the village. They demanded the swift arrest and exemplary punishment of those responsible.
Eyewitnesses said the bomb machines were increasing the risk of riverbank erosion and threatened to wash away houses. They alleged that an attempt had been made on the chairman’s life because he tried to stop the extraction.
Independent Television correspondent Arefin and cameraman Abu Rayhan were attacked while on assignment, witnesses said. The attackers beat them and snatched their camera and mobile phones. When police arrived to control the situation, the officers were also attacked and a police vehicle was vandalized. One police officer was injured.
Upazila Nirbahi Officer Imranuzzaman said strict action would be taken over the obstruction of government work and the attack on an elected representative and law enforcement personnel. Operations against illegal stone extractors will be intensified to protect the Teesta River, and those involved will be brought to justice, he said.
Some of those injured were being treated at a local hospital. Shahin, the seriously injured chairman, was placed under intensive observation.
Shaukat Ali Sarker, the officer-in-charge of Dimla police station, said preparations were being made to file a case over the attack and vandalism, and that efforts to arrest those involved were continuing.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report