15 cops among 50 hurt in slum 'eviction' clash
At least 50 people, including 15 policemen, were injured as slum-dwellers clashed with police, who made a pre-eviction spot visit to the slum in Hathazari upazila yesterday.
Police made the visit ahead of a drive to free the 10-acre slum, Sandwip Colony, at South Pahartali and hand over the land to its owner, Sanaullah, a local businessman.
Sanaullah said he bought the land about three years ago, while some 12,000 slum people had been occupying it since then.
Police said thousands of the slum people attacked them with sticks and stones, injuring two inspectors, one sub-inspector, one nayek, and 11 constables of Hathazari Police Station, as they arrived there around 2:00pm. They were admitted to the local health complex.
Local sources said at least 35 people were injured as police used batons and fired blank shots to take control of the situation.
"Upon a recent order of a Chittagong court, we went there to evict the slum as the people are residing there illegally in that land", said OC Liakat Ali. "We have deployed two platoons of police outside the slum area to avoid any situation”.
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