Dhaka (AsiaNews/Ucan) – Tribal people from northwestern Bangladesh who say local officials evicted them from their homes have held a protest in Dhaka to bring attention to their plight. According to their spokespeople, local government personnel evicted 65 "adivasi" (indigenous) families in Dinajpur district and threatened another 50 families in Rajshahi district in pursuit of plans to create "adarshya gram," or ideal villages. They say that the houses of the 65 families were destroyed by the officials who evicted them on June 22, and that the families have been living in difficult conditions since then in Borodol village, Dinajpur district, about 190 kilometers northwest of Dhaka.

Local politicians of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) reportedly threatened the families in Rajshahi, most of them Hindus. "The Daily Janakantha," a national Bengali-language newspaper, reported July 21 that BNP supporters had physically attacked some of them.

About 150 adivasi from Dinajpur and Rajshahi districts gathered July 23 at Shahid Minar (martyrs' monument) in Dhaka to protest the evictions. They included leaders of the Mal Pahari, Oraon, Pahari and Santal tribes. Ethnic minority leaders from throughout predominantly Muslim Bangladesh were present to lend their support. Santal leader Malai Tudu, a fighter in the liberation war that gave birth to Bangladesh in 1971, read from the country's constitution about the right all Bangladeshis have to live in freedom. He then cited the various amendments to the constitution, including the establishment of Islam as the state religion. "Why did I fight in the liberation war?" he asked with anguish. College lecturer Albert Sorren, a Catholic Santal, posed the same question on behalf of the many other adivasi freedom fighters who joined the liberation struggle. Addressing the rally, he also asked if the "remoteness" of the national administration allowed local officials to carry out evictions. "It must be known by the government how the adivasi have been living in those areas for hundreds of years," he told the crowd.

Santosh Sorren, Dinajpur regional director of Caritas Bangladesh, the Catholic Church's relief and development agency, said the adivasi lands are "khash land," meaning "no man's land," where families have been living more than 100 years without land deeds. He noted that 15 of the 65 evicted families are Catholic, while the rest are Hindu. They have earned their living as poor farmers and daily wage laborers. Caritas is looking into helping the families with relief and rehabilitation materials, and other assistance. The agency official said Bishop Moses Costa of Dinajpur has asked that Women's and Children's Affairs Minister Khushid Jahan settle the eviction issue. He said the bishop also has called for a judicial investigation to help the families resettle on the land they passed down through several generations.

Bishop Costa said that he had written letters to Bangladesh's prime minister and the deputy commissioner of Dinajpur district calling for a resolution of the issue on humanitarian grounds. The bishop has also written to the European Union representative in Dhaka, because the European Union funds the "ideal village" program in the Dinajpur area.

There are about 2 million adivasi living in North Bengal, the area Dinajpur and Rajshahi dioceses serve. It is home to 31 major ethnic minority groups. Many members of these groups are Christians. Dinajpur diocese has 12 parishes and six subparishes with 38,924 Catholics, while Rajshahi diocese has 11 parishes and eight subparishes with 40,699 Catholics. Adivasi form the majority of the Catholics in most of the parishes and subparishes, according to the 2003 Bangladesh Catholic Directory. The number of Protestants in North Bengal is estimated to be lower than the Catholic population there.