ACC alleges administrative inaction allowed Sada Pathor looting

Officials from ACC's Sylhet office conduct a field inspection of the site on Wednesday

The inaction of local administration, Bureau of Mineral Development and others facilitated the massive looting of white stones at Sada Pathor area in Sylhet over the past year, ACC officials claimed on Wednesday.

Rafi Md Nazmus Sadat, deputy-director at ACC’s Sylhet office, raised the allegations after conducting a field inspection.

It was the duty of the local administration to protect the quarry, but they did not play an effective role in this regard, Sadat told reporters.

Bureau of Mineral Development and others should also have played a part in preventing the looting that left the are almost ravaged.

Earlier, Advocate Shah Shaheda Akhter, divisional coordinator of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA), alleged that the stones were being extracted through organised looting, carried out on a massive scale and backed by politically influential figures.

ACC official Sadat said he “heard” that local influential people, business tycoons, and political heavyweights are involved in the looting since 5 August last year.

ACC’s Sylhet office would send the field inspection report to the central office in Dhaka, and take actions based on decisions from the headquarters, Sadat claimed.

ACC is working to locate all of those involved in the looting and bring them to justice, he said.