Seven families belonging to the Rakhine community in Cox’s Bazar Sadar have alleged that they have forcibly been evicted from their village by their own community over a land dispute.
Currently, around 40 members of these families are struggling, having no place to call home.
The Rakhine community is an ethnic community from Arakan who migrated to Bangladesh in the late 18th century and settled in the coastal districts of Cox’s Bazar and Patuakhali.
At a media call at the Cox’s Bazar Press Club on Wednesday, representatives of the family said that they had been forced out of their homes on October 27, 2021.
Some miscreants at the behest of U Shashon Bangsha Bhanto, the chief of the only Buddhist temple in Khuruskhul Rakhine Para, forced us out of our homes, Mang Mang, one of the sufferers, told the media, reading out a media statement.
“They have repeatedly carried out attacks on our houses and continue to loot our belongings,” he said.
According to the statement, the miscreants have also threatened to banish them from the village.
Moreover, those evicted are people who have also been barred from attending the last rites of deceased family members, they alleged.
The sufferers said there was land owned by a cooperative society comprising locals, called Khorukkul Jalia Para Rakhine Sharbik Unnayan Shamabay Shomiti Ltd. The land measures around 20 shatak.
Around eight months ago, U Shashon demanded that the ownership be transferred to him.
He also threatened that if the land was not handed over to him, the society members would have to leave their homes.
When they refused, Shashon’s supporters started attacking their homes.
Some residents of the village opened a cooperative society and in 1998 bought the land from Aman Ullah and his associates from the organization fund.
U Shashon was given the responsibility to look after the land but a few of his relatives tried to illegally transfer the land in their own names.
However, they failed as the land was not bought in anyone’s name. Later, Shashon and his family started harassing those who had protested.
Moreover, they announced that if anyone tried to speak on behalf of the cooperative society they would be banished from the village and temple.
A few months ago miscreants from his group reportedly vandalized the primary school on the society land and shut down the school.
U Shashon was also a teacher at the school but despite drawing a salary he took classes just once a week.
Mang Mang said that U Shashon was now spreading lies about them, saying that they themselves were vandaising their homes in order to frame him.
“It proves that they have admitted to attacking and looting the houses,” he said.
They called for the immediate arrest of the miscreants and demanded that they be allowed to go back home safely.