At a press conference in Dhaka on Thursday, 13 rights-based organizations demanded the immediate return of ancestral Santal farmland in Gobindaganj, Gaibandha, protesting plans to build an Export Processing Zone (EPZ) on the land. Speakers condemned the government’s attempt to build the EPZ by displacing Santals and destroying three-crop agricultural lands, calling instead for peaceful resolution and recognition of the Santals’ legal land rights.
The organizations emphasized that no development project should move forward without an independent environmental and social impact assessment. They also demanded justice and compensation for the three Santal men, Thomas Hembrom, Mangal Mardi, and Ramesh Tudu, killed during the 2016 land protection movement.
ALRD Executive Director Shamsul Huda, Khushi Kabir of Nijera Kori, and Dhaka University Professor Robayet Ferdous were among those who spoke, urging the government to preserve fertile agricultural land rather than displace Indigenous communities in the name of development.
Bangladesh Feminist Archives 