M.Muslim Chowdhury, Srimangal/Moulvibazar/Representative/

Locals have held a press conference in Srimangal of Moulvibazar to protest against the indiscriminate mining of silica sand in violation of the High Court’s ban and to demand that sand mining be stopped.

On Thursday (June 22), Farman Mia held a press conference on behalf of the locals at Srimangal Press Club. Farman Miah said in a written statement that the accused Abru Miah is extracting silica sand across the vast area of the hill without caring about anything due to the silence of the administration. He said protesters were attacked and sued for protesting against illegal sand extraction.

In a written complaint, Farman Miah said that due to the extraction of sand from 5 to 7 points of the Sumaichhara mountain range of Lamua Mauza in Srimangal Upazila, the government bridge, cemetery cremation ground, residential houses and extensive cropland have been damaged. At the same time, the rural roads and infrastructure are facing severe damage due to the addition of trucks to transport sand on rural unpaved roads. In addition to financial loss of the country, the mining of this mineral resource, which is indiscriminately valued and mining is prohibited without regard to environmental laws, is causing serious damage to the environment of the area and adversely affecting the biodiversity.

In the press conference, Farman Miah complained and said that his son Abru Miah, identified as an influential person in Kalapur area, has been extracting silica sand for a long time. A local lessee has leased a sand mahal in Lamua area, apart from the prescribed mahal, he is extracting and selling valuable silica sand day and night from 5 to 7 points wide in this area. Sand mining sites include government bridges, burial grounds, cremation grounds, residential houses and crop fields. There is anger and extreme tension among the affected residents. He said that the complaint has been made verbally to the local member chairman and to the district commissioner in writing. But no action was taken. Taking advantage of this silence of the administration, Abru Mia continues to extract silica sand across the vast area of this hill without caring about anything. In this situation, on behalf of the local residents, I filed a writ petition on 13th February in His Majesty’s High Court to stop the extraction of sand. Writ Petition No. 5935/23. 8 people including Secretary of Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Deputy Commissioner of Moulvibazar, Srimangal Upazila Nirbahi Officer were made defendants in this. Following the writ petition, the joint bench of the Hon’ble High Court ordered the Moulvibazar district administration to file a reply by maintaining the status quo for 60 days on sand extraction in an order on June 4. Even after the pronouncement of the High Court verdict, the said Abru Mia and his people are disobeying the order of the High Court and are mining sand. This caused intense anger among the common people in the area. Due to protests against sand mining in the area and petitions to various government offices along with writs in the High Court, illegal sand miners Abru Mia and his people filed false extortion charges against me and my people at Srimangal police station.

When asked about this, Srimangal Upazila Assistant Commissioner (Land) Sandip Talukdar said, “Earlier we received a complaint about this, we inspected the spot and took action.” He said that we will send a surveyor soon and identify the location of sand extraction of the lessee.

Moulvibazar District Commissioner Dr. Urmi Binte Salam told reporters that necessary measures will be taken after receiving the related documents.
​