A gang of land-grabbers has started demolishing a 100-year-old 'abandoned' Hindu temple at
Rankin Street at Wari in the name of building a primary school.
Walls and columns around the temple, which should otherwise be preserved as a historical relic, have already been demolished. One Haji Abdur Rab, who lives next door and also an official of the school committee, is overseeing the demolition of the temple and extension work of the school.
Haji Abdur Rab said that the Facilities Department of the Ministry of Education is financing the construction of a four-story school on 'whatever land' is available. He said he did not know exactly how much land was there or how much money had been allocated for the construction. He said that the temple would not be demolished as 'the school building would be constructed around the temple'. When asked why then they had removed the columns and walls, he replied that the laborers mistakenly removed the bricks.
The Hindu community of the area had stopped worshipping in the temple several years ago after a section of local people built a wall around the temple, blocking access to it. The same group of people took over the school committee activities and ran the school on 1.5 kathas of land on the western side of the temple. The same land was donated to the school years ago by the Karmakar family, which owns a large chunk of land adjacent to the temple but now lives in hiding in fear of life. A case (no. 40/98) is also pending with the AC Land Office regarding ownership of the Karmakar family's land.
A shopkeeper on the Rankin Street side of the temple said he was temporarily guarding the construction site. He said a part of the temple would probably be spared, but that the age- old structure was not a temple any more and nobody came to worship there.
Another man, who said he lived across the road and identified himself as Shakawat, said that the structure was 'not a temple but a place that was used as a memorial'. He said the school was set up in 1957. The Dhaka City Corporation and the Primary Education Directorate run the school, he said.
Many residents of Wari condemned the decision to demolish such an old structure bearing the mark of traditional architecture. Requesting anonymity, a lawyer who lives in the area said that Mohammad Kajal and Haji Abdur Rab are masterminds behind the whole plot to demolish the temple and grab the land.
"We are fast losing all relics of the past because there are gangs of land-grabbers operating in connivance with the administration; I am appealing to the government to save this temple," said the lawyer.
Policemen at the Rankin Street Police Outpost just next door told this correspondent that they had warned the labourers not to touch the temple. But due to the wall, the police could not see from the street what was going on inside.
Sadek Hossain Khoka, the local Member
of Parliament, and Minister for Fisheries and Livestock and also a mayoral
candidate told The Daily Star that he would look into the matter. "You
may build a school but not at the cost of a place of worship," Khoka said.