Ruling party members in the town of Khagrachhari are trying to grab a piece of land that belongs to the Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board (CHTDB).
They have allegedly threatened CHTDB Executive Engineer Prakriti Ranjan Chakma for barring them and threatened him not to go against ruling party men.
Prakriti Ranjan Chakma filed a general diary with the sadar police station saying his life had been threatened.
Officer-in-Charge of Khagrachhari sadar police station Muhammad Mustafizur Rahman said a group of Awami League leaders led by district unit AL Labour Affairs Secretary Muhammad Nur Hossain Chowdhury had tried to grab a four-acre land belonging to the CHTDB on July 25.
"They built six or ten wooden shanties within a night on the land," OC Mustafiz said. "The CHTDB authorities demolished the shanties on July 28-29 with the help of district Awami League General Secretary Md Jahedul Alam," he said.
Nur Hossain admitted to the incident and said the land had been allocated to them by the Bazar fund of Khagrachhari Hill District Council. He also said his group was intending to house some "destitute ruling party members" at those shanties.
"The land is owned by the government, so anyone can apply for it. There was nothing illegal in the process," he said. But Nur Hossain, when asked, declined to comment why he had filed a case against the CHTDB Executive Engineer.
CHTDB Executive Engineer Prakrity Ranjan Chakma said he and his colleagues were fearing an attack by Nur Hossain and his group.
"The land is ours legally as we acquired it in 1978," Prakriti said. "They are trying to grab the land with muscle power." He urged  the administration to take stern actions against the land-grabbers.
Jahedul Alam deemed the actions of his party men illegal and said he had helped CHTDB to vacate the place after the illegal structures had been erected there. He said an organisational action would be taken against the men for their unlawful activities.