Over 10,000 Hindus in one of the largest Hindu enclaves in the city at Chakuli, in Mirpur-12 are living in gnawing fear of losing their ancestral homesteads and an age-old temple as the Cantonment Board authorities put a claim on the land. Officials with bulldozers yesterday reached the place to demolish the village but called off the operation due to rain, locals said. Residents there said they could produce all documents to prove that they have inherited the land from their ancestors. "We have lived here for generations, if there is a proper land acquisition by the government we shall definitely respect that decision, but what is happening here today [Tuesday] does not have any legal basis whatsoever," said Narayan Sarkar, a carpenter by profession, living on a small piece of land he said he inherited from his forefathers. The crowd of worried men and women grew to over 150 as this correspondent talked to them. "When our parents learnt about the first acquisition back in the sixties, they went to the court and won the case against the government," said a visibly shaken Sudhir Chandra Sarkar, president of the Durga temple committee and a community leader, showing copies of relevant documents. The entire process of acquiring the area for extending Dhaka Cantonment was started again in 1
