A farmer in Alfadanga upazila of Faridpur has alleged that his winter vegetable seedbed was destroyed under cover of darkness. He claims a loss of about Tk 3 lakh.

The incident took place some time on the night of Sunday 3 September in Jogibarat village of Pachuria union in the upazila. On Monday afternoon the farmer, Zakir Hossain, filed a written complaint at the police station naming several people.

According to the complaint and police sources, Zakir Hossain has had a long-running dispute with Hemayet Sheikh of the same area over village factionalism. A day earlier, Hemayet Sheikh, Sohel Sheikh and several others threatened to deal with Zakir Hossain. Early on Monday, Zakir went to his field and found all the seedlings in his vegetable seedbed destroyed.

"My family depends on farming. Who does such harm?" said Zakir Hossain. "Hoping to profit from vegetables, I borrowed money to make cabbage and cauliflower seedbeds, spending about Tk 40,000 to 50,000. Within a week the seedlings were to be moved from the seedbed and planted on one and a half acres. The land is ready. But out of enmity, all the seedlings in my seedbed were destroyed in the dark of night. I have lost about Tk 3 lakh."

The accused, Hemayet Sheikh, said false blame was being placed on them in a conspiracy over village factionalism. "Zakir is my cousin. Why would I destroy his vegetable seedlings?"

Mohammad Abu Taher, officer-in-charge (OC) of Alfadanga police station, said the written complaint had been received and the scene inspected, and legal action would be taken after investigation.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.