Attempt to grab land by Jamaat leaders in Khulna

Paikgachha upazila Jamaat-e-Islami activists Abdur Rashid, Abdul Gaffar, Union Parishad member Lucky, Belayet and Abdus Samad hired the attackers to grab land, victims and eyewitnesses alleged.

Forty landless families, mostly fishermen, are living in a cluster of thatched houses on six acres of government land in Ramnathpur village on the bank of river Kopotaksha with permission from appropriate authorities, said Santosh Gayeen, one of the victims.

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Nearly 100 men armed with clubs, sharp weapons and iron rods came on board three trawlers and launched the attack when the fishermen families were asleep.

The attackers destroyed eighty percent of the thatched huts, said one of the victims injured in the attack.

Later police went to the village, which is about eight kilometres from Paikgachha Police Station.

Four of the seriously injured perons -- Jabbar, 50, Ranjan, 40, his wife Arati, 30, and Mohon, 40 -- are now undergoing treatment at Khulna Medical College Hospital while eight others were admitted to Paikgachha Upazila Health Complex.

It is not such a big incident that needs deployment of extra forces at Ramnathpur, said Officer-in-Charge Enamul Huq of Paikgachha Police Station when contacted.