February 23, 2003	Sunday	Zul Hijjah 21, 1423

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DHAKA, Feb 22: A shantytown in the capital’s Mirpur area resided by the stranded Pakistanis for more than 30 years was razed to the ground by the government on Friday.

Some 300 thatched houses at the ADC relief camp in Mirpur-11 were razed, rendering some 3,000 people homeless.

About 70 people were injured when the slum dwellers locked in clashes with police during the day-long eviction conducted by the Ministry of Housing and Public Works along with police. Wounded persons, most of whom were women, were taken to different hospitals immediately.

The leaders of the stranded Pakistanis have instantly announced a couple of demonstrations against, what they said, illegal and inhuman act by the government. Their programmes include submitting of a memorandum to Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and a walkathon towards the Pakistan embassy on Sunday.

The victims, who had been living in the area since 1972, told reporters that the police had forcibly evicted them violating a High Court order asking the government not to disturb the slum dwellers in question.

They also claimed that the eviction was done without any prior notice. But an executive engineer of the Housing and Public Works department, who was present during the eviction drive, denied the allegations.

He said that the eviction was being done legally, claiming that the Stranded Pakistanis had been illegally occupying the land owned by the Ministry of Housing and Public Works.

The enraged slum dwellers chased police by flinging chunks of bricks when the police used club to disperse the frenzied mobs.

During the eviction, a fire broke out in the slum mysteriously, gutting some 150 houses that worsened the situation. Slum dwellers accused the police of setting fire, while the police said that it was done by the slum dwellers to foil the eviction drive.

Several squads of the Fire Service and Civil Defence, however, brought the flame under control, but the slum dwellers living in those shanties lost all their belongings.