Influential land grabbers smashed three memorial tombs to illegally occupy land of the only cemetery of Hindu community in Saidpur municipality under the district.

The 1.29-acre land comprising plot No 21 at Kundol mouja under Saidpur municipality is a khas land, which is recorded as cemetery of the Hindu community, according to official document of upazila land office.

Visiting the sight on Tuesday morning, it was found that some people were ploughing about 30 decimals of the occupied land of the cemetery in its east to cultivate potato there.

"Since my childhood, I saw bringing of dead Hindus to the cemetery for funeral. But local influential people including Abdus Sattar and Shahjahan engaged day labourers on December 4 to smash and remove old memorial tombs and occupy cemetery land," said octogenarian Md Amin, a resident of the area.

Nawsad Parvez, owner of Northern Cold Storage beside the cemetery, said,

"Hindus use it for burningdead bodies and spread the ashes in the Khorkhoria River flowing beside. They also buried some dead bodies in the cemetery and built tombs in their memory."

At the north side of the cemetery, Hindus built a spacious room for keeping dead bodies safely in case of natural calamity. Priests recite holy verses there during the funeral.

During Tuesday's visit, it was found that iron grills of windows and the door made of heavy iron bars of the room were stolen.

A vested quarter committed the crime to grab the cemetery land, said a few locals.

When contacted, Abdus Sattar, one of the alleged grabbers, said the land which was claimed by Hindus as cemetery land was their paternal property and they inher-

ited it lawfully.

Another alleged grabber Shahjahan Ali said the Hindus' claim was not right, as they had measured the land with genuine surveyor following land map. He however remained silent when this correspondent asked why they never forbade Hindus in the past to bury dead bodies and make tombs there.

Amit Kumar Roy, general secretary of Saidpur unit of Hindu Kalyan Society (welfare association), said, "Occupation of the cemetery land has hurt the sentiment of local Hindus. We lodged a written complaint

to Saidpur UNO regarding the matter on December 8 and also recorded a general diary in local police station. If the local administration fails to ensure justice we will launch an agitation programme."

Saidpur IINO Shafiqul Islam said, "I along with the officer in charge of Saidpur police station visited the spot on Tuesday afternoon and found the allegation to be true. I directed assistant commissioner (Land) to mark the cemetery area without delay. We have also identified the grabbers and legal action will be taken against them."