Police and forest guards opened fire on a peaceful demonstration of the Garos on January 3 at Modhupur in Tangail that left one dead and injured 25 others, Odhikar said in its finding.

The Garo people were on their way to Gaira Primary School to hold a scheduled rally there to protest the walling up of an eco-park area as well as to save their endangered culture and heritage.

As the procession reached Jalbadha, police and forest guards opened fire on the demonstrators without any provocation. Piren was hit by a bullet and died on the spot during the indiscriminate firing.

But police and forest guards claim 200 - 300 armed indigenous people started to tear down the wall of the eco-park. When the law enforcers ordered them to refrain from doing so, they started pelting stones and chased the law enforcers wielding sharp weapons, according to the law enforcers. Police and the forest guards then fired gunshots in 'self-defence', they claimed.

Following the incident, Abu Zafar Alam, officer-in-charge (OC) of Modhupur Police Station, filed a case accusing the forest guards of the murder. Havildar Idris Ali of the same police station filed another case accusing 500 600 indigenous people of obstructing government officials from carrying out their duties and ransacking government property.

The OC claims Piren was killed by gunshots fired from one of the rifles of the forest guards.

Local lawyers however said the OC could not shake off the responsibilities of his force in the killing just by filing a case against the forest guards. They said police and forest guards acted as a team and fired indiscriminately on the demonstrators.

The indigenous people said they were against the Forest Conservation and Eco Tourism Project which would separate 3,000 acres of Madhupur Gar by erecting surrounding wall of the area earmarked for the eco-park. They see the forest as the sole source of their livelihood, from where they collect their food and firewood, without harming the nature. Their life, culture and heritage fully depend on the forest.

The Odhikar report quoting the father of Piren said he would file a case accusing both the policemen and forest guards. The locals also have taken up non-stop programmes following Piren's killing to drive home their demands.

The demands include cancellation of the eco-park, compensation for the families of Piren and others injured, judicial inquiry into the killing of Piren and other indigenous people, punishment to the culprits, withdrawal of false cases against the indigenous people and permanent land settlement for them.