On 26 January 2023, woman environmental human rights defender Syeda Rizwana Hasan and her team were attacked when their vehicles were pelted with stones. The events took place on their visit to the Lake City residential area of Chattogram, a site where the hills have been razed for a housing project, impacting the local environment.
Environment activist Syeda Rizwana Hasan came under attack from a local councillor who built a kingdom by razing large areas of the hill in the eastern part of ??. Condemning the attack, we urge the government to bring the perpetrator to justice. pic.twitter.com/mOHyKmG4qj
— Munem Shahriar (@munem_shah_) January 27, 2023
Syeda Rizwana Hasan is a lawyer of the Bangladesh Supreme Court and the chief executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA). She is a member of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, and the Environmental Law Commission of International Unions for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Additionally, she is a member of the board of the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE). Over the past 20 years, Syeda Rizwana Hasan has been advocating for environment protection on issues such as deforestation, pollution, unregulated ship breaking, illegal appropriation of wetlands, cutting of hills, unregulated mining, unplanned urbanization, commercial shrimp cultivation, and illegal land development in Bangladesh. In 2022, she was awarded the International Women of Courage Award by the US Department of State.
On 26 January 2023 at around 12.30pm, members of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyer’s Association (BELA), along with several journalists, visited the aforementioned housing project in the Lake City residential area. Following this, they visited Kalirichara Khal, a body of water which has been filled in as part of the construction. This development has been headed by Jahirul Alam Jashim. Jashim is a local leader of the national ruling party, as well as a local Councillor of Chottogram City Corporation. While the woman environmental human rights defender was conducting this visit, a group of people started to follow the team and made attempts to intimidate them by questioning them about their reasons for being there. As Syeda Rizwana Hasan and her team proceeded towards the site, Jahurul Alam Jashim and his men appeared, brandishing sharp weapons, and obstructed them from entering the site. The woman environmental human rights defender escaped to the nearby bypass road and called the police to come to the scene. By the time they arrived, she had reached her car. However, when she subsequently made an attempt to leave the vicinity, Jahirul Alam Jashim and his men pelted the car with stones, also aiming for Sayeda Rizwana Hasan herself.
[…]
https://www.dhakatribune.com/nation/2023/01/27/bela-team-attacked-while-visiting-site-in-chittagong
https://www.newagebd.net/article/192971/52-eminent-citizens-condemn-attack-on-green-activist-rizwana
