About 50 armed men, firing shots in the air, grabbed a 300-acre shrimp farm, owned by a foundation established by Nobel Laureate Dr Mohammad Yunus in the Cox’s Bazar district, police said on Wednesday.
The unknown attackers raided the 25-year-old shrimp farm in Cox’s Bazar’s Chakaria Sundarbans under Rampura mouza on Monday night.
The miscreants tied up 10 to 15 officials and employees of the farm, beat and drove them away. The farm is run by the Grameen Fisheries and Livestock foundation of Dr Yunus.
Utpal Kanti, manager of the farm for the last 25 years, said the attackers occupied the farm and beat up the employees.
He filed complained with Chakaria police station on Tuesday night.
Officer-in-charge of Chakaria Police Station OC Shaker Mohammad Jubayer said he had received a written complaint about seizing the shrimp farm.
“The incident is being investigated,” he said.
Chakaria Upazila Parishad Chairman Fazlul Karim Sayedee said this was the first time that such a large farm in the Rampur area was forcefully occupied.
In this regard, Iqbal Hossain, Regional Fisheries Officer of Cox's Bazar said, ``300 acres of land was leased to Grameen Fisheries Foundation out of 7,000 acres of shrimp farms in Chakariarampur mouza."
The 15-year lease expired in 2014. A case was pending in the court between Grameen Bank and the Fisheries Department over the issue of extending the lease, he added