In the cold with no food, shelter
She was looking for something she could salvage in the hope that it would help her get through what apparently was the worst time of her life. Two days after the arson, her razed home was still smouldering.
Pieces of half-burnt clothes and mangled pots were all Sumoti Bala could collect. They were kept in a neat pile at a corner of the torched house, even though she knew none of that would be useable.
Still, she kept on looking for things. There was little else she could do.
Sumoti and her husband are farmers. The house they had built with corrugated iron sheets, wood and mud meant the world to them. It was their home and the home of their two children.
Her house was special to her but it was just one of 57 houses, of indeginous people in Suridaspara of Naniarchar upazila in Rangamati, which were torched by Bangalee settlers Tuesday morning.
Sumoti could save nothing from the sudden attack. “We all ran to the jungle as I saw a group of people coming towards us brandishing sticks and sharp weapons,” she told The Daily Star standing in the ashes of her home.
“When I returned after two hours, I saw the house was burning. We lost everything we had,” she said.
As the sun was about to set yesterday, the cold of the hilly area started to roll in.
Another indeginous woman Bimola was preparing to make a fire for the night. It was an irony that they lost their home to arson and the only way they could survive under the open sky in the chill of December was to make a fire. They had no warm clothes, food or shelter.
Some of the victims of the arson took shelter in the houses of nearby villages.
But Antina Chakma, her sister and mother have nowhere to go. “We keep ourselves warm burning wood at night,” she said, adding, “We saw our home burn from the jungle nearby.”
None of the three had any warm clothes.
Antina's neighbour Amolendu Chakma had everything: nine huts, solar power, a sewing machine for his wife, enough warm clothes to go around and all the kitchen utensils his family needed.
Now, he has nothing, just like Neheru Chakma, Shanti Bikas Chakma and many more who had a good simple life going.
The local administration offered corrugated iron sheets, rice and blankets for some of the victims on Wednesday but they did not accept those.
“We will accept the relief of the government if they give it to every victim,” Ananda Chakma, member of Burighat union told The Daily Star.
He said the indigenous people had come forward with rice and clothes to help the victims that too were insufficient.
Several hundred Bangalee settlers on Tuesday attacked the indigenous village and torched houses on the pretext that the ethnic people had chopped down the settlers' pineapple plants and teak saplings.
Officer-in-Charge Md Rashid of Naniarchar Police Station told The Daily Star yesterday that no case had been filed so far and none were arrested in connection with the arson.
The indigenous people have started an indefinite blockade of Rangamati-Khagrachhari highway. They are holding rallies and bringing out processions demanding compensation, and arrest and punishment of the attackers.
Comments