Shawdesh Desk:

Muktijoddha Kalyan Trust on Thursday evicted families of nine war injured freedom fighters from the Muktijoddhya Tower on Gaznavi Road in Mohammadpur saying that they were illegally occupying nine flats of the tower.

Families of war injured freedom fighters — Abdul Latif, Amir Hossain Mollah, Lutfar Rahman, Shaheed Abdul Gani, Abdul Quddus, Liaquat Ali, Tara Miah, Moksed Ali and Atiur Rahman— were evicted on the day.

Each of the families had been occupying two flats since 2014 despite getting allotments for one, the trust managing director M Iftekharul Islam Khan told New Age.

The trust took possession of another illegally occupied flat on July 25 and remaining 21 illegal occupiers would be evicted next week, he said.

Twelve allottees illegally occupied 12 extra flats while 19 others were occupied by same number of people without any allotment, the trust officials said.

They said that some of the illegal occupiers were under screening of the liberation war affairs ministry after getting complaints against them for not being war injured freedom fighters.

The liberation war affairs ministry in 2014 allotted one flat and a shop of the tower to each of 66 war injured freedom fighters, the ministry officials said.

The allotment process for 84 flats and 72 shops of the tower could not be completed as 13 of the allottees were resisted by the 31 illegal occupiers, who had taken possessions of flats and shops six months before the initiative began in June, 2014.

The Tk 67 crore Muktijoddha Tower project was initiated in 2011 for housing of the homeless war injured freedom fighters by demolishing three two-storey buildings of non-Bengalis, who left those after the war of independence.

Some war injured freedom fighters with their families were rehabilitated in the three buildings after the war.

Thirty-two of them got allotments of same number of flats and shops after construction of the tower, ministry officials said adding that 12 of them took possession 24 flats while others were illegally occupied by 19 others claiming themselves residents of the demolished two-storey buildings.

They also illegally took possessions of the shops and rented those out, they said.

None of the possession holders paid electricity bills in the past five years and total pending bills stood at Tk 1.27 crore.

The possession holders said they would not pay bills until obtaining deeds against their flats and shops. ‘We have already expressed our demands to the ministry,’ said Abu Shaheed Billah a possession holder.

Liberation war affairs minister AKM Mozammel Huq said that the government would handover deeds to the legitimate allottees after evicting the occupiers.

‘We will handover flats and shops to 13 allottees who could not take possessions. And allotments of flats and shops will be given through selection,’ he said.

The ministry got 263 applications from war injured freedom fighters for flats and shops in the tower.