The state has been patronising a grand festival of land grabbing in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, said International Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission (CHTC) member Dr Iftekharuzzaman yesterday.
Addressing a roundtable at the Dhaka Reporters Unity, he added that the state policy showed that many actions have been taking place for evicting the indigenous people from the country.
“Indigenous people are becoming evicted and displaced continuously, while there is no one to pay heed because the state patronises the land grabbers; for which, one day there will be no indigenous people in the country,” said Iftekharuzzaman, also the executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh.
“We are neither against the state, nor our security forces, military and BGB; but we are against the illegal land acquisitions and land grabbing in any way by anyone,” he told the roundtable organised by Association for Land Reform and Development (ALRD) and Bangladesh Adivasi Forum.
“Moreover, people want to know, as it is their right to know, that what are the expenditures of the cantonment and its transparency, accountability. The people would also like to know whether they [military] are violating the peace accord. The accountability should be logically expressed by the government as well as respective institutions,” Iftekharuzzaman said.
“The government once discovered a theory that there is no indigenous people in the country. So nowadays when the rights of indigenous people are widely discussed, it is said that there is no indigenous people. It is unfortunate, but maybe when the rights of the Bangali people are talked about, it is possible that it would also be claimed that there is no people in Bangladesh,” the CHTC member added.
Also addressing the programme, Bangladesh Adivasi Forum General Secretary Sanjeeb Drong said: “Since the establishment of the Land Commission in 2001, it has been more than 15 years that it could not do anything to solve the land disputes in the hill tracts area. So there is a question on whether the state is concerned.
“Many claim that because of the ongoing tough political situation, there is slow progress in concentrating on the Chittagong Hill Tracts. But I would say there is a tougher situation prevailing in that region,” Drong said.
Other speakers at the discussion also criticised the recent direction taken by the Home Ministry. They also demanded the fulfilment of the peace accord to ensure transparency and accountability and avoid the culture of impunity in the CHT area.
A paper was also presented by Dhaka University teacher Syed Robayet Ferdous that depicted the recent land grabbing incidents and different communal attacks on the indigenous people.
The programme was presided over by ALRD Executive Director Shamsul Huda, while Oikya NAP President Pankaj Bhattacharya, and Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad General Secretary Rana Das Gupta were also present.
