A portion of the listed Mughal period heritage structure Bara Katra in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, was demolished violating law and the High Court directives for the preservation and protection of relics and monuments of ancient period.
The Department of Archeology tasked with the conservation of historically important sites has failed to take any pragmatic measures as many other heritage sites run the same risk, activists and experts said.
‘Apart from the archeological sites listed with the DoA, there are many other sites that had already disappeared and many are at risk,’ said the chief executive of Urban Study Group Taimur Islam.
‘Though Bara Katra was declared heritage, the archeology department did not take any measures to protect it in past decades. It was routinely demolished and grabbed.’
Taimur Islam mentioned that Patuatuli Mosque and the Amligola Havely of the Mughal era were among the structures completely demolished while Chhota Katra and many others were partially demolished.
According to Jahangirnagar University archaeology professor Sufi Mostafizur Rahman, Bangladesh lacks policies to protect archaeology and there is hardly any accountability on the part of the authorities concerned.
‘We fail to realise the significance and priority of heritage,’ he said.
‘Bara Katra was a very significant historical and heritage structure that could attract a huge number of tourists if the authority could preserve it.’
Built-in between 1,644 and 1,646 AD by Mir Abul Qasim, diwan (chief revenue official) of Shah Shuja, second son of emperor Shah Jahan, Bara Katra, a Caravan Sarai, stands at Chawk Bazar on the north bank of Buriganga River.
At present, over a hundred shops and dozens of residential units have popped up in the Bara Katra complex while its core zone is being used as Jamia Hossainia Ashraful Ulum Madrassah.
Due to its misuse, the Mughal-era structure has almost decayed while a major portion of it has been blocked by illegal occupation, thereby losing its glory day by day.
According to the Detailed Area Plan of the Rajuk, the capital development authority, the agency is committed to protecting 250-metre radius from the boundary of the heritage structure, but a lot many were found adjacent to dozens of heritage sites, destroying their beauty.
Local people said that one Ali Hossain, who claimed the ownership of a five-katha land at a portion of the structure, started demolishing the structure since mid-July.
Ali Hossain claimed that he had owned the land since 1978.
Experts said that it was a crime if anyone destroyed any heritage structure even if it was on their own land after the archeology department declaration.
The department was tasked with the protection of heritage and can file cases against anyone for violation of the law.
Archeology department director general Ratan Chandra Pandit said that after being informed by local residents, the department stopped demolition but did not take any legal action against anyone.
‘Why did the department not file case and why is it reluctant to do so? What is the interest of the officials concerned?’ asked Taimur Islam.
Asked about it, Ratan Chandra Pandit said that a number of the heritage sites were on the personal property so they could not protect them while they had a lack of budgetary allocation and manpower crisis.
‘If the mayor takes conservation initiative, the department will give full technical support with its expertise,’ he added.
Visiting the spot, Dhaka South city mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh on Wednesday again upheld his election pledge to conserve the heritage of Dhaka by preserving the architectural sites including the Bara Katra.
Historians and archaeologists demanded a complete survey and documentation of heritage sites and structures and their proper preservation for posterity.
They said that the protection of heritage was a legal obligation of the department according to the Antiquities Act 1968 as well as a signatory to the UNESCO World Heritage Convention of 1972.
Urban Study Group, campaigning for the conservation of the old town, particularly its heritage sites and structures since 2004, has a list of 2,800 structures including 700 grade one heritage in old Dhaka including structures built during the pre-Mughal period, Mughal period and colonial period.
Archeology department officials, however, said that it had a list of 517 heritage sites across the country, 37 of them in the capital.
In August 2018, the High Court issued an order not to demolish any of the 2,200 heritage sites of old Dhaka after the USG filed a writ to conserve them.
Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha identified 75 structures in the capital as heritage structures, bringing down the number from 92. In 2009, Rajuk earmarked four areas covering 13 streets as heritage sites in November 2017.
In 2018, the government bought for Tk 331.7 crore the historic ‘Rose Garden Palace’ on 2.4235 acres (146 kathas) of land at KM Das Lane of Tikatully in old Dhaka where the Awami League was formed.
Rose Garden was on the list of the department though it was maintained by its owner.
Bara Katra was first declared a heritage by the British in 1909 but it was canceled in 1922, and again in 1956, it was listed as heritage but again canceled in 1968.
Finally, in 1989, the Bangladesh government listed Bara Katra as heritage without demarcating its area.
Published on New Age
Rashad Ahamad 