Clash over Baluchar cattle market lease in Munshiganj leaves at least 10 injured

Two local groups clashed in several rounds on Friday, 22 May 2026, in Baluchar union of Sirajdikhan upazila in Munshiganj district, in a dispute over the lease of the Baluchar cattle market and the election of the market's traders' association, Jagonews24 reported that evening. At least 10 people were seriously injured. Three of them were hit by tenta, a pronged spear, and were sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in a critical condition.

The clashes ran from about 10.30am to 1pm at Char Jasimuddin and in the area beside Baluchar bridge. They came six days before Eid-ul-Azha, which the National Moon Sighting Committee had fixed for Thursday, 28 May 2026, at the time of year when cattle markets across Bangladesh are leased out and filled with animals for sacrifice.

According to police and local sources quoted by Jagonews24, a dispute had been running for a long time between a local group known as the Shahid Baul group and another known as the Khokon Sarkar group over the lease of the Baluchar cattle market and control of the area. It led to an exchange of words, and on Friday morning people from both sides took up locally made weapons and clashed. There were chases and counter-chases and bricks were thrown, and the whole area was turned into a battleground, the report said.

Besides the three people hit by spears, who were rescued and sent to Dhaka in a critical condition, another seven to nine people were injured and treated locally.

Awlad Hossain, chairman of the Baluchar union parishad, said the clash had broken out mainly over local dominance. Several people had been hurt, he said, and the situation was under police control.

Confirming the incident, Abdul Hannan, officer-in-charge of Sirajdikhan police station, said: "There were several rounds of clashes between two groups over the lease of the cattle market and dominance. Police went to the spot on receiving the news and brought the situation under control. The situation is now normal. Those involved will be identified and legal action will be taken quickly."

Speaking to Dhaka Post at about 3.30pm the same day, the officer-in-charge said extra police had been deployed in the area and that no one had yet lodged a complaint with the police station.

Other news outlets that covered the clash on 22 May gave slightly different times and numbers. The Business Standard's Bengali service, in a report published at 8.30pm, said at least 12 people had been injured, including the three hit by spears, and that the clashes went on for two hours, from 10.30am to 12.30pm. It said extra police had been deployed after tension ran high in the area, to prevent any further trouble.

Dhaka Post, which published its report at 3.46pm, said at least six people had been hit by spears in a clash between about 10.45am and noon in the Char Jasimuddin area next to Baluchar bridge, and that they were being treated at various hospitals and clinics. It quoted local people as saying that clashes over the occupation of land and local dominance happened often in the char (river island) areas of Baluchar and Latabdi unions of Sirajdikhan, where disputes between different sides had gone on for a long time. Dhaka Post named the two sides somewhat differently from Jagonews24.

The Daily Manobkantha, also reporting in the afternoon, said a cattle market for Eid-ul-Azha was due to sit at Baluchar bazar on 23 and 26 May, and that the lessee of the market had called a coordination meeting with local notables on Friday morning so that it would run peacefully. According to the paper, the clash began after an argument broke out during that meeting, and 12 people from both sides were injured. It quoted the lessee as alleging that the attack had been planned to frighten the farmers and buyers coming to the market and to disrupt trade; the report carried no response to that allegation from the other side.

All four reports quoted the police as saying they had gone to the spot and brought the situation under control. Earlier that evening, at 7.22pm, the state news agency BSS reported from Munshiganj that security at the district's cattle markets had been strengthened for the Eid season. Superintendent of Police Md Menhajul Alam told BSS that 12 check posts had been set up in different places and that steps had been taken so that no extortion or fraud could take place at the markets. The district administration said police and Ansar members would be deployed at the large markets and that veterinary teams from the livestock department would be present to treat animals.

Sirajdikhan is one of the six upazilas of Munshiganj district, south of Dhaka. According to Banglapedia, the national encyclopedia, the upazila covers 180.19 square kilometres. It is bounded by Keraniganj upazila to the north, Lohajang and Sreenagar to the south, Tongibari and Narayanganj Sadar to the east, and Sreenagar and Nawabganj to the west. Its main rivers are the Ichamati and the Dhaleshwari. Sirajdikhan thana was formed in 1914 and became an upazila in 1983.

The upazila is divided into 14 union parishads, Baluchar among them, which together hold 124 mauzas and 178 villages. The 2022 population and housing census of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics counted 77,999 households and 316,473 people in Sirajdikhan, with a literacy rate of 77.38 per cent among those aged seven and over. Only 11.87 per cent of the population lived in urban areas.

Farming is the main livelihood. Banglapedia, drawing on census data, gives agriculture as the main source of income for 40.91 per cent of households and commerce for 18.08 per cent, and records that 55.38 per cent of households own no agricultural land. The upazila supplies a large quantity of vegetables to Dhaka and is known across the country for patkhir, a local sweet. Banglapedia lists 20 hats and bazars in Sirajdikhan, among them the Taltala, Sirajdikhan, Rajanagar and Ichhapur hats, and 11 fairs. One of the older schools in the area is Khasmahal Baluchar High School, founded in 1957.

Munshiganj district as a whole covers 1,004.29 square kilometres between the Padma, the Meghna, the Dhaleshwari and the Ichamati. The 2011 census counted 1,445,660 people there. Agriculture was the main source of income for 38.64 per cent of households and commerce for 23.17 per cent, according to Banglapedia.

The clash of 22 May was not the first in Baluchar union in which people were wounded by spears. News reports from the preceding four years describe a series of fights between rival groups and villages there, most of them over local dominance.

In January 2022, Samakal reported a clash at the trawler landing of Akbarnagar village in Baluchar union between the supporters of two local men, over dominance of the area. Three people were hit by spears and 10 were injured in all; the three were admitted to Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital in Dhaka. The officer-in-charge at the time told the paper that the same two groups had fought the night before, when two people were hit by spears, seven were injured and several houses were looted and damaged.

On 7 February 2022, the local news site Amar Bikrampur reported that the same two groups in Akbarnagar had clashed again the previous day, from the morning until 4pm, leaving two people hit by spears and five injured. It was the fifth clash between them in a month, the site said; in that month nine people had been hit by spears and 25 houses had been vandalised. A senior assistant superintendent of police said the spot lay on the border with Fatullah in Narayanganj district.

On 19 October 2024, Bangla Tribune reported a clash at Charpania village in Baluchar union that began with an argument over a football match the day before and turned into a fight over dominance. Four people were hit by spears and 12 were injured, and three houses were vandalised. The union parishad chairman, Awlad Hossain, said the situation had calmed down, and the police said extra officers had been sent to the village and that a case was being prepared.

On 22 June 2025, residents of Mollakandi and Khasmahal villages in Baluchar union clashed after a row over an unpaid electricity bill at an auto-rickshaw garage in Baluchar bazar, The Business Standard reported. Six people were hit by spears and at least 15 were injured, and at least 10 shops at the Baluchar bazar crossroads were vandalised. Army and police members went to the spot to bring the situation under control. The union parishad chairman described the cause as a trivial matter.

On 11 February 2026, Prothom Alo reported that four people had been hit by spears in a clash at the Gazi Market area of Purba Chanderchar village, also in Baluchar union, arising from a long-running dispute between two family groups. Houses were damaged and a shop was looted. Two of the injured were taken first to Mitford Hospital in Dhaka and then to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. The officer-in-charge, Abdul Hannan, said the fight had grown out of old enmity over a trivial incident, and that no side had yet filed a written complaint.

The weapon named in these reports, the tenta (also written teta), is a pronged spear of the kind used to catch fish in Bangladesh. Banglapedia's entry on fishing gear groups spears that are thrust, thrown or discharged as "wounding gears" and lists Ek Kata, Tekata, Anchda and Koch among the traditional ones. In the reports from Sirajdikhan, such spears appear alongside other locally made weapons in clashes between rival groups.

In each of the reports above, people with serious spear wounds were taken to hospitals in Dhaka: to Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital in January 2022 and October 2024, to Mitford Hospital and then Dhaka Medical College Hospital in February 2026, and to Dhaka Medical College Hospital on 22 May 2026.

The lease of a market such as the one at Baluchar is governed by the Hats and Bazars (Establishment and Management) Act, 2023. Parliament passed the bill by voice vote on 9 February 2023 to replace the Hats and Bazars (Establishment and Acquisition) Ordinance of 1959, a Pakistan-era law, and it was gazetted on 13 February 2023. The bill had 26 sections. It defines a hat or bazar as any place where the public buy and sell agricultural produce, fruit, animals, poultry, eggs, fish, meat, milk and dairy products, food, industrial products and daily necessities, every day or on fixed days of the week.

Under the Act, the ownership of hats and bazars lies with the Ministry of Land, and no one may set up a hat or bazar without government permission; a market set up in breach of the law can be taken over by the government together with its structures. Permanent settlement or lease of hat and bazar land is prohibited, and only annual leasing is allowed. A reserved open space in each market must be kept as a "toha bazar", where farmers and small traders can sit temporarily, outside the regular lease. The authorities that establish markets can form management committees at district, upazila, municipality, city corporation and union parishad level to look after maintenance and development, run the daily business of the market and collect tolls, taxes, rates or fees.

Anyone who illegally occupies government khas land in a hat or bazar, or builds or tries to build on it without prior permission, faces up to one year in prison, a fine of up to Tk 5 lakh, or both. The Act also allows temporary hats and bazars, for a fixed period and without permanent structures, at places other than the established markets on the occasion of a religious or other special festival, with the prior approval of the deputy commissioner. This is the provision that covers markets held only for a festival season, such as Eid.

Market leases are a large source of public revenue. According to figures the Ministry of Land gave in December 2023, the country had 10,273 hats and bazars in the 2021-22 fiscal year, and the government earned about Tk 744 crore from the 7,972 of them that were leased out. At that time the ministry was drafting rules under the new Act and putting information on hats and bazars into its land data bank.

In the weeks before the clash, Munshiganj was preparing for its biggest trading season of the year. Amar Bikrampur reported on 9 May 2026, citing the district livestock office, that 67,711 animals had been prepared for sacrifice in the district's six upazilas against an estimated demand of 60,795, leaving a surplus of about 6,916. The animals included 44,039 cattle, 223 buffaloes, 19,879 goats and 3,570 sheep. The report said 41 Eid cattle markets might sit in the district.

By upazila, Tongibari had the most animals, 21,982 against a demand of 21,372. Munshiganj Sadar had 9,658 against 7,486, Lohajang 8,220 against 6,289, Gazaria 12,007 against 10,193 and Sreenagar 9,768 against 9,600. In Sirajdikhan, 6,076 animals had been prepared against a demand of 5,855, a surplus of 221. District livestock officer M A Jalil said prices of cattle might be somewhat higher than the year before, and that the number of sacrifices might fall somewhat because of the economic situation, instability in the fuel oil market and rising costs.

Competition for market leases ran high. On 8 May 2026, Amar Bikrampur reported that the district's largest temporary Eid market, on open ground beside the Panchasar bridge near Muktarpur, had been leased for Tk 37 lakh, a figure the Sadar upazila nirbahi officer confirmed. Its position on the bank of the Dhaleshwari makes it easier to bring animals in and out. Other temporary markets in Sadar upazila had been leased for Tk 37,000, Tk 35,000 and Tk 3.61 lakh, while no one had yet applied for two others. Munshiganj holds 40 to 41 Eid cattle markets every year, the site said.

On 22 May, BSS reported, citing the district administration, that 69 markets were sitting in Munshiganj for the sale of sacrificial animals that year, 28 of them temporary and 41 permanent. The lessees had finished preparing the grounds and animals had started to arrive, with farmers and traders bringing cattle from Pabna, Sirajganj and Faridpur, though trading had not yet picked up.

Munshiganj also has its own cattle tradition. BSS reported on 16 May 2026 that the white cattle of Mirkadim, in Munshiganj Sadar, were still prized by buyers in Old Dhaka, where the Gani Mia hat at Rahmatganj has kept a place in front for Munshiganj farmers since 1933. Farmers told the agency that rising feed prices and a shortage of workers had cut the number of farmers raising these cattle in and around Mirkadim from more than 200 to 10 or 15, and that feeding a cow only on concentrates cost about Tk 500 a day. The district livestock office said it advised these farmers regularly and supplied deworming medicine and vaccines.

At a briefing on 3 May 2026, the Minister for Fisheries and Livestock and Agriculture, Mohammad Amin Ur Rashid, said the demand for sacrificial animals that year had been estimated at 10,106,334 against an availability of 12,333,840, leaving a surplus of about 2,227,506. The animals available included 5,695,878 cattle and buffaloes, 6,632,307 goats and sheep and 5,655 animals of other species, The Business Standard reported.

More than 3,600 cattle markets would sit across the country, the minister said, including 27 in Dhaka, 16 under the North City Corporation and 11 under the South City Corporation, where 20 veterinary medical teams would be on duty. He said the government would take a firm stand against extortion from trucks carrying animals, that law enforcement agencies would be active round the clock to keep markets, buyers and sellers safe, with plain-clothes members where needed, and that a policy decision had been taken not to hold markets in border areas, to protect domestic farmers. Animals would also be sold online, with no toll charged on online purchases.

The Eid market is the peak of a large sector. The Department of Livestock Services' Livestock Economy at a Glance for 2024-25 put the country's cattle population at 251.71 lakh, goats at 272.91 lakh, sheep at 39.81 lakh and buffaloes at 15.32 lakh. Livestock contributed a provisional 1.81 per cent of gross domestic product at constant prices and 16.54 per cent of agricultural GDP, the department said, citing the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. It estimated that livestock directly employed 20 per cent of the population and partly employed 50 per cent. Meat production stood at 89.54 lakh tonnes against a demand of 77.92 lakh tonnes, while milk production, at 155.38 lakh tonnes, was still short of the 162.33 lakh tonnes demanded.

Photo: Wasiul Bahar / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sources: Jagonews24, The Business Standard, Dhaka Post, The Daily Manobkantha, Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS), Bangla Tribune, Prothom Alo, Samakal, Amar Bikrampur, Dhaka Tribune, Banglapedia, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (Population and Housing Census 2022, via Wikipedia), Department of Livestock Services