Message to the Prime Minister Written on a T-Shirt in Bagerhat in an Unusual Protest to Free Riverbanks from Encroachment

An unusual protest has been seen in Bagerhat, raising the question of who will take responsibility for stopping the encroachment of riverbanks. Instead of a banner, festoon or human chain, a message was written inside a red circle drawn on a green T-shirt made in the style of the national flag, and hung on a post on the road in front of the Bagerhat Press Club.

The message is addressed to Prime Minister Tarique Rahman. The scene was noticed in front of the Press Club on Thursday morning, 5 November.

The T-shirt welcomes the prime minister to Bagerhat and says the riverbank has been encroached upon, asking whether he can stop it. The writing also includes the English word 'Please'.

Various expectations have grown among people of different classes and professions in the district around the prime minister's visit to Bagerhat. Against that backdrop, this unusual protest demanding that riverbanks be freed from encroachment has sparked fresh discussion.

Journalist Md Shahidul Islam raised the matter in a post on social media. He said someone had tried to express their expectations around the prime minister's Bagerhat visit in this way.

Shahidul Islam wrote that the message might never catch the eye of the person it is addressed to. Still, someone may have hung it up with a hope — thinking that if journalists noticed it, it would become news, and that news might somehow reach the prime minister's attention.

In his view, many more people in this region share the same expectation about the encroachment of riverbanks and land. What they want is for such encroachment to stop and for rivers and their banks to be protected.

The demand to free Bagerhat's rivers and canals from encroachment is a longstanding one. In particular, there are allegations of encroachment, illegal structures and obstruction of the natural flow in different parts of the Bhairab and Daratana rivers in the town.

As river land has been encroached upon, the water flow has narrowed in places. The report said this is also putting the environment, biodiversity and the lives and livelihoods of river-dependent people at risk.

On 26 July, young people also held a sit-in programme in Bagerhat demanding that rivers and canals be freed from encroachment. The demands there included determining the boundaries of rivers and canals recorded in government records, evicting illegal encroachment and protecting water bodies.

It is not known who hung up the T-shirt. But the aspiration to protect rivers and their banks expressed through it matches the longstanding expectations of many people in the district.