The United Peoples Democratic Front (UPDF) yesterday demanded removal of a camp of the Bangladesh Border Guard from Dighinala area in order to keep stability in Khagrachhari.
Organising Secretary of the organisation Prodipon Khisa also demanded that the 21 families who have been evicted last year to build the BGB’s 51 battalion headquarters in Dighinala defying a High Court status quo be given their land back, says a press release.
The statement said: “The BGB 51 battalion in the name of constructing a camp have grabbed land of ingenious people and already evicted many people from the locality which is not acceptable. It is not only inhuman and unjustified but also violation of the constitution of the country.”
The UPDF leader expressing solidarity with the 21 evicted families said the BGB camp could be constructed in another place, but the people who were evicted had no place to go.
He also demanded withdrawal of cases filed against the people who had been observing agitation programmes demanding removal of the camp from the place.
A tense situation has been prevailing in the area for the last couple of weeks over construction of the BGB camp.
Local sources said law enforces were conducting drives to arrest the people involvement in the movement.
Scores of people, including ethnic minority people, were injured in several clashes with Army personnel.
At least 17 people were injured when security forces clashed with a group of hill people at Dighinala of Babuchhara upazila in the district on Sunday.
The clash ensued between Armed forces and local people when the ethnic minority people under the banner of Dighinala Land Protection Committee were marching towards the under-construction Babuchhara battalion headquarters of the BGB.
Protesting the attack, indigenous people enforced a daylong transport strike in the area on Monday protesting Army’s attack on the march.
During the strike, no highway buses left the town as the demonstrators put barricade on the Khagrachhari-Dighinala road with logs. A large number of police, BGB and army was deployed at different important spots of the area.
Police arrested 11 people, including a female college student named Nilu Barua, in a case filed over injuring army men during Sunday’s clash.
Last year, Khagrachari district administration acquired 31.63 acres of land belonging to indigenous villagers of three villages, Santosh Kumar Karbari Para, Gobinda Karbari Para and Notu Chandra Karbari Para of Dighinala union, to construct a BGB camp.
Since then, local people have been protesting the move.