Carrying her child, she defied guns: Garo family evicted from Bangladesh’s Modhupur Forest

Sanjoy Kumar Barua

With her infant tied to her back, a Garo mother stood before armed officials in Bangladesh’s Modhupur Forest, desperately trying to protect the small homestead her family had called home for generations.

Moments later, the poor Indigenous family was forced out at gunpoint—an eviction that has stirred outrage and renewed concern over the fate of forest communities and their ancestral lands.

The incident occurred in Dharati village,Tangail district, where officials from the state-run rubber authority, accompanied by armed Ansar personnel, allegedly drove the family out without prior notice.

Witnesses say the operation quickly descended into chaos as security personnel adopted what locals described as an aggressive and intimidating posture.

Images circulating in social media show the Garo mother, identified as Shibli Mangsang, standing defiantly with her infant strapped to her back while attempting to defend her home from demolition.

The photographs have become emblematic of a growing confrontation between Indigenous residents and state authorities in the region.

Local residents said the eviction took place abruptly, without any written warning or formal legal procedure.

Members of the family appeared visibly terrified as Ansar personnel reportedly wielded sticks and threatened them while clearing the homestead.

“It felt like the war days of 1971,” one witness said, referring to Bangladesh’s brutal independence conflict. “The way the armed men behaved—it created an atmosphere of fear and humiliation.”

The eviction has ignited widespread outrage among Indigenous rights activists, who say the incident represents yet another example of systemic marginalisation of the Garo community in the Modhupur forest area.

According to local accounts, the operation was carried out by officials from the Bangladesh Forest Industries Development Corporation—commonly referred to as the Rubber Development Authority—along with members of the Ansar force responsible for maintaining security.

Victim Romen Kubi, a member of the evicted Garo family, said that no written notice had ever been served to them before the eviction.
“We were never informed,” he said.

“No one gave us any official document asking us to remove our house.”

Under Bangladesh’s criminal procedure laws, legal experts note, the use of force against women by male officers without the presence of female personnel may constitute a violation of established legal safeguards.

Sections 46 and 52 of the Criminal Procedure Code outline strict conditions regarding the arrest or physical handling of women.

A lawyer at the Bangladesh Supreme Court said the images showing security personnel confronting an unarmed Indigenous woman carrying her child raise serious concerns about the use of force during the eviction.

“This is not simply an eviction—it is a display of raw power against the most vulnerable,” said one Indigenous rights campaigner familiar with the situation. “A mother carrying a child should never be treated as a threat.”

The controversy is further compounded by the historical context of land ownership in Modhupur.

During the 1980s, authorities cleared vast swathes of natural Sal forest—locally known as the Gajari forest—to establish large-scale rubber plantations.

Approximately 7,000 acres of forest land were converted for rubber cultivation under state supervision.

Indigenous residents have long argued that those lands historically belonged to their communities before the plantations were established.

Today, critics say many of those rubber plantations are no longer economically viable.

Instead of rubber production, large portions of the land are reportedly being used for commercial farming, particularly banana and pineapple cultivation.

Local residents allege that influential individuals have quietly occupied significant sections of the plantation land while authorities have taken little action to reclaim them.

Against that backdrop, activists say the eviction of a poor Indigenous household appears both disproportionate and discriminatory.

“If thousands of acres are illegally occupied by powerful actors, why target a single impoverished family?” asked one local community leader. “Is this about forest protection, or selective enforcement?”

Bangladesh’s constitution guarantees fundamental rights related to personal liberty and freedom of residence.

Articles 32 and 36 affirm the right of citizens to life, security and the freedom to reside in their homes.

Legal observers say any eviction conducted without due process could potentially violate those constitutional protections.

Indigenous groups also argue that forced removals from ancestral lands undermine the cultural survival of communities whose identities are closely tied to the forest ecosystem.

“The forest is not empty land,” said one Garo activist Onitto Mankhin. “It is our history, our livelihood, and our identity.”

The timing of the incident has also drawn attention. It occurred just a day after International Women’s Day, a moment meant to celebrate women’s rights and dignity.

Rights groups are now demanding an immediate investigation into the conduct of the security personnel involved in the eviction.

They are calling for the identification and disciplinary punishment of any officials responsible for the alleged use of excessive force.

Activists are also urging authorities to restore the evicted family to their homestead and provide compensation for the damage inflicted.

More broadly, Indigenous rights campaigners are demanding an end to what they describe as discriminatory eviction drives targeting forest communities.

“We demand an immediate halt to such evictions,” said Probath Nokrek, an Indigenous rights activist, calling for the protection of Indigenous land rights in the Modhupur forest region.