Sampan boatmen’s ultimatum “If the eviction is not stopped, everything will be paralyzed”

Six organizations have formed a human chain to protest the eviction of large sampan boatmen from the mouth of the Ichanagar canal on the banks of the Karnaphuli River and the chemical pollution in the area by operating an open dry dock in a densely populated area.

Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, Bela Bangladesh Environment Forum, Srishti, Chittagong River and Canal Protection Movement, Bhorer Alo and Chittagong River and Canal Protection Movement organized a one-kilometer-long human chain on the road adjacent to Ichanagar Sea Resources in Charpatharghata, Karnaphuli Upazila, this Monday afternoon.

Speakers at the human chain rally said that there is a history of boating, i.e. sampans, in Karnaphuli since two and a half thousand years ago. But some unscrupulous port officials, in collusion with greedy businessmen, are repeatedly trying to eliminate the tradition of sampan boatmen of Chittagong and Karnaphuli. The speakers warned that if the eviction of the boatmen and the dry dock activities in open areas are not stopped within the next three days, the boatmen will stop bringing all kinds of goods on ships.

They will stop the activities of Sea Resources along with the people of all walks of life in the area.

The speakers also said that the icon sampan of Chittagong, the sampan that has been in Karnaphuli for thousands of years is part of the national heritage, and the historical sampan game celebrated on the Karnaphuli River is affiliated with the Ministry of Culture as a national event. The sampan of the Karnaphuli River and the sampan boatmen are traditions and professions that are at risk of extinction. The 2003 jute industry policy mentions that if a boatman stays on the river with his sampan, he will be given a lease of a ghat and other applicable facilities to sustain his profession. But ignoring all these, a company named Sea Resources is trying to evict more than three hundred boatmen owned by the Karnaphuli Upazila Sampan Boatmen Workers Union from the sampan ghats and harbors used by them.

In a notice signed by Mohammad Raihan Uddin, Assistant Manager (Estate-2) of the Port Authority, the notice was issued on January 12, 2026, to remove the boats from the riverbank. Despite the boatmen’s various requests, the announcement of a campaign to evict the boatmen from the riverbank has angered the people of the Karnaphuli Charpatharghata and Ichanagar areas.

Human chain rally was chaired by Mohammad Mozammel, President of Karnaphuli Upazila Baro Sampan Majhi Workers Union, and was addressed by journalist Aliur Rahman, member of the Bela Network of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association and General Secretary of Bangladesh Environment Forum, Channel I Chittagong Divisional Bureau Chief Chowdhury Farid, Advisor of Karnaphuli River Sampan Majhi Welfare Association Engineer Mirza Ismail, President SM Payar Ali, Joint General Secretary Lokman Dayal, and others.