Protect ritual site, recover grabbed land

A group of civil society members has urged the government to protect the ritual site and recover the grabbed land as an endowed property along the Brahmaputra river at Langalbandh where 10 Hindu pilgrims were killed and 20 others injured in a stampede on Friday morning.     

They also demanded fair investigation into the stampede incident occured when thousands of Hindu devotees gathered there for taking a ritual bath.

They made the demand while taking to journalists at Naranyanganj Press Club after visiting the ritual site in Bandar upazila yesterday.

Expressing grave concern over the deaths, journalist and writer Syed Abul Maksud said 10-15 lakh Hindu devotees from home and abroad take a holy bath every year in Langalbandh but no arrangement of sufficient safe drinking water, toilets and resting rooms there.

Terming Langalbandh as one of the leading ritual places in the sub-continent, leader of Samillita Samajik Andolan Pankaj Bhattacharya said about 45 acres of land as endowed property have been grabbed by making fake documents. Now there are only 2.25 acres of such endowed property in the area, he said.

He urged the government to recover the Hindu religious land and demanded adequate compensation for the victims' families.

Later, they met Narayanganj City Corporation Mayor Selina Hayat Ivy at her office.