Bullying arson vs protest arson: Sandeshkhali women resist 'landgrab bid' by Shahjahan's brother
Telegraph | 23 February 2024
Women of Sandeshkhali on Thursday took on Trinamul strongman Shahjahan Sheikh’s brother Sirajuddin Sheikh and his alleged henchmen, chased them away and set on fire at least two of their guard rooms.
The developments took place after Sirajuddin and his men allegedly set ablaze the house of a villager at Kathpole in Sandeshkhali block in North 24-Parganas, after she protested the forceful removal of soil from her farmland apparently to turn it into a bheri or a pond for pisciculture.
Women alleged that over the years politically powerful goons had been changing the topography of the locality by randomly converting farmlands into bheris and robbing farmers of their livelihood. They alleged that police had remained silent spectators.
“However, we protested again today (Thursday) against one such fresh attempt of landgrab,” a woman in Kathpole, Sandeshkhali block, said.
Amid the ongoing turmoil in Sandeshkhali in North 24-Parganas district since February 7, the fresh women’s protest in Kathpole went against claims of normality in the locality made by the state government and Trinamul.
Local sources said that on Thursday afternoon tension erupted when Sirajuddin and his close aide Gaffar, along with others, allegedly began to remove the earth from the farmland of young homemaker Gita Bar in Kathpole.
Gita and her physically challenged husband tried to resist the men, who, angered, set fire to the couple’s house. But women from the neighbourhood rushed to douse the fire and chased away the goons. The women also torched two aala ghars (guardrooms of bheris), which allegedly belonged to the goons.
“Today Gaffar led the gang to our land and began removing earth without asking us.... It is our farmland. So we protested the removal of soil. Then Gaffar and his men set fire to our house and threatened us with dire consequences. But they had to flee in the face of our united resistance,” Gita said.
Although Gita did not name Sirajuddin, several villagers vouched for his presence in Thursday’s violence. “Sirajuddin was the first to flee on a bike when we protested,” a woman said.
“Shahjahan, his brother Sirajuddin and their aides are used to assaulting those who protest their wrongdoings. This is how they grab our properties. The police have never bothered to take action. Cops side with Shahjahan and his aides and advise us to negotiate with them. I wonder why (chief minister) Mamata Banerjee can’t see their wrongdoings?” Gita asked.
Cops who went to the site faced angry women demanding Sirajuddin and his aides be arrested.
Local Trinamul MLA Sukumar Mahata refused to comment on Thursday’s incident. Till Thursday evening, no complaint had been lodged against Sirajuddin, a police source said.