Stones being looted from BR's Bholaganj ropeway site

SYLHET, Oct 27: The Bangladesh Railway (BR)'s reserved site Bholaganj ropeway on the Bangladesh-India frontier in Companiganj upazila of Sylhet has been in trouble as various gangs of miscreants have been looting stones from the government-owned area and its adjacent places for long.

Although a contingent of the BR's Railway Nirapatta Bahini (RNB) remains deployed there, the miscreant gangs have been involved in the looting of valuable stones from the reserved site.

However, there are allegations that the gangs do it in connivance with the members of the said security force.

Since the August 05 government changeover, the gangs have looted stones worth over one billion taka, local sources claimed.

Meanwhile, a special task force, comprised of BGB and police, conducted a drive on Monday and seized 500 cft stones, as those were being looted from the reserved site, along with 136 boats.

An official at the BGB said that the six-hour drive started at midnight and continued till 6:30 am in the area, close to the border pillar number 1249.

Later the seized stones along with the boats were kept in the custody of the local union parishad.

Upazila Nirbahi Officer Abida Sultana and others were present during the drive.

The 17-km ropeway was established from the remote Bholaganj border to Chhatak in 1964 with a target to bring stones for BR from the attached quarry site.

It includes the ropeway's stone loading station at Bholaganj and delivery station at Chhatak.

The BR establishments spread over 359 acres of land had been under control of the Ansar Bahini since 2000.

But in line with a decision of the railway ministry, the RNB took up the responsibility in 2012.

The miscreants on August 6 night swooped on the RNB men, who were later withdrawn on the following day.

Since then the site went out of control and taking its advantage, miscreant groups looted stones and other objects of the BR while even trees were felled and taken away.

Some were seen extracting stones from the area during the last few weeks. Immediate steps should be taken for protecting the site and stones, some locals viewed.

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