Protecting Rights of Khasi people in Sreemangal, Moulovibazar 2014

In Aslam punjee, under Sreemangal thana, the land of Khasi people were claimed by the authority of Nahar tea garden as the land of Tea estate. On this issue, a conflict arose between the local khasi people and the authority of tea garden on 30th May, 2014. A number of Khasi people were injured and a person, Netai Tanti was died after severe injury by that incident. The people of rival group barricaded the entire road so that no injured people could admit to the hospital and leave the spot. As ECDO works with protecting the rights of indigenous people, after hearing about the incident, ECDO and the members of human rights defenders (HRD) arrived to the spot immediately. The team of ECDO individually talked with the victim family and community people in order to know the facts and met with the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Sreemangal Thana after visiting Nahar tea garden and Aslam punjee. ECDO created pressure on law enforcement agency and media to response to the issue as soon as possible and took measures to remove the barricade on the road. ECDO made urge to the authority to bring the severely injured people to Sylhet quickly and admit them to Osmani Medical College and Hospital for advanced treatment. Finally, khasi people owned their land by the cordial support of ECDO and human rights defenders.