The brazen, unchecked plunder of precious silica sand in Habiganj district’s Madhabpur, Chunarughat, and Bahubal upazilas by criminals linked to the BNP, Jamaat, and NCP has reached catastrophic levels, turning protected mineral sites into open loot zones under the noses of authorities.
In a scathing intervention, the High Court on Sunday slammed the government for its glaring inaction, ordering an immediate assessment of the environmental devastation caused by this illegal extraction and the preparation of a detailed list of the criminals involved—followed by swift legal action and recovery of compensation.
The directive came during the initial hearing of a writ petition filed by the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA), with Justices Fahmidah Kader and Md. Asif Hasan presiding. The bench issued a rule questioning why the authorities’ failure to stop the looting from these 2013 gazette-notified silica sand mines should not be declared unlawful, without legal authority, and against public interest.
The court has commanded the Director General of the Bureau of Mineral Development, Habiganj’s District Commissioner, the Deputy Director of the Department of Environment, and the Upazila Nirbahi Officers of the three affected upazilas to halt the illegal operations without delay. They must submit a progress report on compliance within three months.
This latest High Court order exposes a shameful pattern of environmental rape in the Sylhet region, where silica sand (often called “white stone” in local contexts) and similar resources have been systematically ravaged since the political upheaval of August 2024. Previous court interventions—including High Court directives in 2025 to curb illegal stone extraction in Sylhet’s quarries—have been flagrantly ignored, allowing syndicates to operate with impunity.
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The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has previously compiled damning lists of perpetrators in the white stone looting scandals across Sylhet, naming influential figures from local BNP, National Citizen Party (NCP), Jamaat-e-Islami, and Islami Andolan Bangladesh leaders as key beneficiaries and protectors of these rackets. Reports from 2025 highlighted how these political operatives colluded with corrupt officials to facilitate massive theft from sites like Jaflong, Bholaganj’s Sada Pathor, Bichanakandi, and others—looting resources worth crores and devastating tourism and ecology.
Alarmingly, former environment adviser and chief executive of BELA, Syeda Rizwana Hasan—despite her public persona as an environmental crusader—has faced repeated accusations of turning a blind eye or worse, with critics pointing to her alleged tacit support or failure to crack down decisively on these politically connected gangs in the Sylhet-Habiganj belt. Local leaders from BNP, NCP, Jamaat, and Islami Andolan have been repeatedly implicated in shielding the looters, using their influence to evade enforcement and perpetuate the plunder.
BELA’s petition reveals there are 23 silica sand mahals in Habiganj, mostly nestled within tea gardens, none of which were leased out in the 1431-1432 Bengali year, according to the Bureau of Mineral Development. Yet, in the glaring absence of oversight, dredgers and heavy machinery are ripping apart restricted areas like the Sutang River’s Chaklapunji in Chunarughat, Deundi Tea Garden, Raghunandan Hill, and Brindaban Tea Garden in Bahubal. The use of banned dredger machines has triggered landslides on adjacent hills, creating imminent risks of hill collapses, loss of life, and irreversible natural destruction.
This is no mere oversight—it’s a calculated free-for-all enabled by political muscle from BNP-Jamaat affiliates and their allies in NCP and Islami Andolan, who have turned post-2024 chaos into a golden opportunity for resource theft.
The High Court’s demand for names and action is a long-overdue reckoning, but unless the interim authorities summon the will to dismantle these protected syndicates—including holding accountable those in high places like the environment adviser’s circle—the looting will rage on, stripping Bangladesh of its natural heritage for private gain. The people of Habiganj and Sylhet deserve justice, not more hollow directives ignored by the powerful.
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