Finding no way to beat it, 40-year-old Danabi Chakma braces this biting winter under the open sky at Chhuridas Para under Naniachar in the Rangamati hill district area.
Her little abode was burnt on Tuesday when the local Bangali settlers torched around 55 houses in the locality. A day after the horrific attacks, she is yet to find a place to lay her head, food to eat, or warm clothes to fight the cold.
Around 8:30am on the 44th Victory Day, several hundred settlers attacked the houses and shops of the indigenous people, looted and set them on fire. Most of them fled their houses to save their lives, and returned to find only ashes, several victims told this reporter.
The settlers also attacked the Karuna Buddha Bihar, assaulted its monks, and looted the idols and cash.
Fumes could still be seen, and the odour of the burnt objects in the houses were strong even yesterday. The attacks have further aggravated the miseries of the local indigenous people as they lost their recent harvest too.
According to the local government officials, military persons and indigenous people, the attack occurred following an allegation of vandalism in the settlers’ pineapple orchard situated in the Chouddo Mile area.
This place is located in the middle of Chhuridas Para and Bogachhari Bazar where around 350 settler families live.
The settlers, however, deny the allegation.
Afsar Master, who claims to be the owner of the orchard along with two others, said: “We, the settlers did not torch their houses, rather the indigenous people did it to put the blame on us. They vandalised our orchard.”
According to this version, the settlers had cultivated 50,000 pineapples on around 2 hectare land. The indigenous people had allegedly damaged the cultivation along with 20,000-24,000 teak [segun] trees worth Tk60-70 lakh.
Lt Col Sohel, the Naniachar zonal commander of the Bangladesh Army, confirmed to the Dhaka Tribune that the settlers had torched the houses and vandalised a Buddhist temple.
“Two patrol teams led by a Major-ranked official and consisting 40 personnel reached the spot around 8am. In the meantime, 400-500 settlers were agitating as their orchard had been damaged the previous night.
“Our forces tried their best to stop them. They even charged batons at the agitators and also tried to stop them from burning the shops,” he added.
According to our Khagrachhari correspondent, Afsar allegedly grabbed the land from Padmo Ranjan Chakma of the same area.
Buddhist monk Ava Shah said: “Entering the temple, the settlers slapped me and then started vandalising. They damaged the Buddhist statue and took away five other small brass Buddha idols.
“From the temple’s donation box, they looted five years’ savings.”
Laxsmirita Chakma, one of the affected shop owners, said: “The attackers looted 1.5 bhori gold and Tk70,000 before torching the shop. All my son’s educational certificates have been burnt to ashes.”
Naniachar Officer-in-Charge Abdur Rashid told reporters that they were yet to file a case over the incident.
On the other hand, the settlers, army official Sohel and the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samity (PCJSS) together blame the United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF), the anti-Peace Accord party, for vandalising the pineapple orchard which resulted in the torching of the houses and shops of the indigenous people.
UPDF representative Bablu Chakma, who is also the Rangamati district president of Pahari Chhatra Parishad (PCP), denied the allegation.
“There is no proof that the UPDF carried out the vandalism. They all put blame on the organisation as we are working for the struggling people of the country as well as the indigenous people,” he said.
Bablu claimed that such incidents could not take place without the assistance of the government and the army.
Soon after Tuesday’s attacks, the UPDF men blockaded the Rangamati-Khagrachhari road. In a statement, the UPDF alleged that the army personnel had poured petrol on an already burning shop and also beat up three indigenous people.
Yesterday, the PCJSS members organised a rally protesting the incident while the indigenous people kept the Rangamati-Khagrachhari link road blocked.
Local lawmaker Firoza Begum Chinu, Lt Col Sohel, former state minister Dipankar Talukder and Rangamati District Council Chairman Nikhil Kumar Chakma among others visited the area yesterday and assured both the indigenous and the settlers of ensuring punishment of the culprits.
The district administration and the district council have distributed a total of Tk2.35 lakh in cash among the indigenous victims and provided them with 100 blankets, tin sheets and rice which they said were inadequate.
Even though a 12-member probe body led by Naniachar upazila Chairman Shaktiman Chakma was formed on Tuesday, it has not been given a deadline to submit the report.