A halt to Latif Siddique's 'library' in forest

Plans to build a personal library in Latif Siddique's name on two-and-a-half acres of land occupied in the sal forest of the Salna range, have been thwarted. Anik Siddique, son of the post, telecommunications and ICT minister Latif Siddique, had forcefully occupied this land and put up a signboard for a library there in the name of his father.

The Gazipur district judge court has identified Anik Siddique as an unlawful occupier of forest land and has stopped work on the landfill there. A copy of the stay order signed by Gazipur senior assistant judge Shammi Hasina Parveen was sent to the forest department on 20 August. It was said that Anik Siddique had been issuing threats after having failed to forcefully take over 95% of the forest land. On 27 January he had tried again to occupy the land.

The government has decided to drop Latif Siddique from the cabinet after he made untoward remarks about hajj and the prime minister's son Sajib Wazed Joy in New York recently. He has a personal library at home.

Anik Siddique forcefully occupied the two-and-a-half acre plot of forest land and put up a signboard there reading 'Latif Siddique's Personal Library'.  The forest department recently took back the land and removed the signboard. The department had earlier on 24 and 25 December filed general diaries (GD) with the Rajendrapur police station against five of Anik Siddique's employees for occupying that land and cutting down a few thousand trees. Later the forest department filed two cases over the same incident naming a certain Fariduddin as the main accused.

Chief Conservator of Forests Yunus Ali says that the plot of land is part of the Salna protected sal forest. According to the forest law, sal trees cannot be felled without the prime minister's permission. Even entrance to the forest requires permission of the forest department. Yet Anik Siddique tried to forcefully occupy the forest land.

It was not possible to contact Anik Siddique. However Fariduddin, the main accused in the case filed by the forest department and the contractor to fill the land, says that he only cut down the trees and filled the land after being given the contractual work by Anik Siddique.

This piece of land adjacent to the Bangladesh Ordinance Factory, is presently worth over Tk 100 million. There are dense forests all around and the entire area is owned by the forest department. The department carried out forestation of the area in 1984.

In November last year, Fariduddin and his people cut down the trees and occupied the land. They assaulted the forest department people who tried to stop them, saying that the land belonged to the minister Latif Siddique. On 27 November when Forester Kamrul Hasan tried to file a case in this regard at the Joydevpur police station, he was told that they wouldn't take a case against the minister's people. He later filed general diaries.

Forest department people again resisted Latif Siddique's people when they tried to fill the land and occupy it on 10 December. The minister's people beat them up. This time the forest department appealed to the Gazipur additional district magistrate's court to enforce Section 144 there. The court did so the very same day, but the minister's people ignored the court order and felled large numbers of trees to occupy the land.