Manirampur, Jashore: With no adult male at home and her husband working abroad, housewife Najma Khatun struggles to survive with her three daughters. Ongoing mental harassment, alleged conspiracies, and obstruction by her own brother-in-law and co-sharers over ancestral property and homestead rights have left the family desperate. In Jashore’s Manirampur upazila, relatives are accused of socially isolating the wife of an expatriate and cutting off irrigation water to her cropland during her husband’s absence. The matter has now reached the upazila administration and local police.
According to local sources, expatriate Abdul Mannan, son of the late Minaj Fakir of Helajni village under Khedapara Union, owned 9.75 decimals of his ancestral 39 decimals of land and purchased another 9.75 decimals from his brother Abdul Quddus. He then registered the total 19.50 decimals in his wife Najma Khatun’s name. It is alleged that Abdul Quddus and other co-sharers became resentful upon seeing the property transferred to Najma, especially as the couple has three daughters. They reportedly feared the land would leave their control once the girls marry. Citing this so-called “inheritance crisis,” the co-sharers claimed portions of cropland within Mannan’s possessed land, triggering disputes.
Najma Khatun said she filed a partition suit in court after failing to resolve the dispute amicably. Enraged by the ongoing case, Shahajan Fakir, Sohan, Abdul Quddus, Jamal, and Zahid Hasan allegedly began harassing her, blocking access routes and threatening to stop irrigation to her land during the current Boro season.
Khedapara Union’s acting chairman, Md. Munsur, said, “I told them—why are you trying to starve your sister-in-law and her daughters? This is a violation of human rights. But they are not listening to anyone. They have clearly said they will not supply water to the land or allow cultivation.”
While Abdul Quddus dismissed the allegations as “ridiculous,” he stood firm on his position. “I will not supply water from my shallow pump to her one bigha of land—not even if I have to go to jail,” he said. Another co-sharer, Mozammel Hossain, admitted obstructing movement citing a ‘private road,’ but failed to explain the obstruction on a government brick-paved road.
In tears, Najma Khatun said, “Since my husband went abroad, they have been oppressing me. I accepted the land exactly as it was measured and allocated. Now they are conspiring together so that I cannot grow crops. It’s not possible to install a shallow pump on just five decimals of land. I even begged them, but still they are cutting off my children’s livelihood.”
After being informed, Manirampur Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Md. Samrat Hossain instructed the police to take action. On the orders of Manirampur Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Raziullah Khan, Sub-Inspector Ubaidullah visited the site. “I spoke to both parties and, considering the humanitarian aspect, requested that water be supplied to the fields,” the SI said, adding that the situation is being monitored.
The family of expatriate Abdul Mannan now awaits effective administrative intervention so they can live safely and with dignity on their own land.