Lukman Ahmed, Sylhet

This year, Hafiz Abdullah-owned company M/s Bhai Bhai Enterprises got the lease of the newly created Hajipur Balu Mahal in West Jaflong Union of Gowainghat Upazila of Sylhet.

Although sand is supposed to be extracted from Lati, Labu, Kalijuri and Dakshin Pratapur Mouzas of West Jaflong Union in the traditional way, the lease conditions are not being met for sand extraction. In addition, outside the designated leased areas, a festival of illegal sand extraction is going on day and night in the areas of West Jaflong, Gowainghat Sadar and North Pratappur, Luni, Ambari and Dakshin Pratappur of Central Jaflong Union of the upazila. Hundreds of bighas of cropland are being lost due to sand extraction using dredging machines. Homes in various villages are facing erosion, and three football fields are under threat.

Sand extraction has been going on for several months in the Ananda Canal area of the Piain River in Pratappur and Panchhatikhel with a payloader machine. A group of 40-50 locals have been extracting sand from the banks of the canal area, creating numerous holes. There are also three playgrounds owned by the Jaflong Tea Garden in that area. There are also houses and crop lands of locals. Sometimes in the day and sometimes in the dark of night, local influential people extract sand. Among them are Khairul Amin, Kamrul Islam, Faizul Islam, Tofail Ahmed, Delwar Hossain from Luni village.

Several videos and pictures have shown hundreds of people lifting sand by torchlight in the dark of night. And during the day, sand can be seen being lifted with thousands of dredger machines. That sand is being sold in different parts of the country by river every day with hundreds of bulbheads and cargo. Workers said that more than a few lakh cubic feet of sand are lifted from there every day. Its market value is more than 2/3 crore taka. A gang had been illegally lifting sand and stones in Jaflong for a long time.

Many of the sand lifters in Pratappur were involved in the destruction of Jaflong. They were also used as a lathi-force there. 25-30 cases have been filed against Khairul, Kamrul and many others in the past decade. However, they have been exempted from most of the cases, sometimes by compromising, sometimes by pressuring the plaintiffs to withdraw the cases.

The latest case was filed on January 13 by Mahbub Hossain Bulbul, a resident of South Pratappur, against eight people including Khairul and Nurul. In this, he complained of being beaten up for obstructing the sand extraction with a dredger machine. In addition, Emdadur Rahman of South Pratappur filed a petition with the Deputy Commissioner on December 27 last year against 24 people, including several government officials, on behalf of the local residents. In this petition, he complained of sand extraction and extortion, as well as river bank erosion and destruction of residential areas.

On September 7 of the same year, in response to the complaint of another person named Billal Hossain of South Pratappur, Senior Assistant Commissioner Ripamoni Dobi wrote a letter to take action. On behalf of the local residents, freedom fighter Shamsul Haque filed a petition with the Deputy Commissioner on August 26 last year to stop the extraction of sand from the football field and the intermediate areas. But no complaint could stop the extraction of sand. Sometimes from government land, sometimes from private land.

Locals say that the Luni football field owned by Jaflong Tea Garden and two other football fields in Dakshin Pratappur are under threat due to sand mining. The houses of Amrika Lal and Kuland Nath of Luni village are in danger of being washed away when the monsoon arrives. Apart from this, the houses of Abdul Jalil, Abul Hossain, Kamal Nath and many others in Dakshin Pratappur are under threat. Not only in the Dakshin Pratappur area, but also in Hajipur area of West Jaflong Union, a kilometer away, cropland and houses are being washed away into the river due to sand mining using dredgers in different parts of the Piain River. Helena Begum, Tariq Ullah and others are among the homeless.

Regarding the allegations, Khairul Amin said, "No one can say that I am involved in sand extraction. Hajipur Balumahal has been leased, they know how they are extracting sand. He also claims that there are no complaints against him in the area." In this regard, Hafiz Abdullah, owner of Messrs. Bhai Bhai Enterprise, said, "I am extracting sand from Lati, Labu, Kalijuri and Dakshin Pratapur Mouza using traditional methods. I am not aware of the issue of extracting sand with a dredger."
Gowainghat Upazila Executive Officer Ratan Kumar Adhikari mentioned that many people, including Khairul, were involved in sand mining and said that a drive was recently launched. A case has also been filed by the upazila administration. The drive will continue to stop sand mining.