Thirteen-year-old girl Ilsha Chakma and her brother Mithun Chakma, 18, silent and grim-faced, stood in front of their house burnt by Bangali settlers on December 16.
Their house at Suridas Para under the Naniarchar upazila in Rangamati went up in flames in the morning of the day when the county was celebrating its 44th Victory Day.
“We have no place to go now, nowhere to sleep, no food available., everything torched by Bangali settlers. We only managed to save our lives. When we came back we found only ashes,” said Ilsha to the Dhaka Tribune.
“Our recent harvest was also burnt. We are helpless,” said Ilsha’s mother Shanti Rani.
“Now we are passing a miserable life in this cold hilly area, keeping ourselves warm by lighting a fire. Our next-door-neighbours give us food,” she said.
Family members of 54 other houses have also similar stories to tell as all their houses were burnt to ashes on the fateful day of December 16.
Not only that, seven shops and a Buddhist temple were also vandalised and looted during the arson attack in the area.
After the incident, lawmaker Firoza Begum Chinu, district Awami League President and also former state minister Dipankar Talukder and district parishad Chairman Nikhil Kumar Chakma visited the affected area on Wednesday morning and offered them compensation.
The compensation consists of a cash amount, tin sheets, blankets, utensils, lungis and rice but indigenous people refused to accept the compensation as it was too meagre for them to manage their survival.
Naniarchar upazila Chairman Shaktiman Chakma said 100 blankets had been brought for the affected family members.
Barigat union member Ananda Chakma told the Dhaka Tribune: “How could we offer just one blanket to each family in this severe winter season? Tin sheets are also not sufficient to rebuild a house! Is this a joke?”
“When we found our houses burnt many of us rushed to our temple. We became more disheartened and helpless when we found the temple too was vandalised. Even the Buddha idol was not spared,” said a helpless Arun Bikash.
The tension is still mounting among the settlers and indigenous people in the area.
Lawmaker Chinu, however, said: “Actually they refused to accept the compensation as they are feeling depressed. They demanded their houses be rebuilt and after that they will accept the compensation.”
The government has sent a team to rebuild the houses burnt by settlers on Thursday, she said.
In return for anonymity a number of indigenous people said they did not hear about any such information. But some people from the government came and visited the affected area, they said.
The attack was a sequel to an earlier event of vandalism of a pineapple orchard owned by Bangali settlers in Chouddo Mile area located between Suridas Para and the Bagachhari Bazar where around 350 Bangali settlers are living.
Since then the Rangamati-Khagrachhari link road has remained barricaded by indigenous people.
