<i>Down in dumps</i>

Tears were flooding the eyes of the three, who lost their mother Buddha Bati Chakma in a shooting allegedly by security personnel in Baghaichhari upazila Saturday morning.
Sumita Chakma, 19, her brother Jewel Chakma, 15, and their younger sister Rupna Chakma, 10, passed the last three days with their relatives in Bongaltali, some 15 kilometres away from their burned down house, without any help from the government.
They are passing the nights without warm clothes and the days in a single dress as everything they had was reduced to ashes in an arson attack allegedly by Bangalee settlers.
The helpless and shell-shocked father Uttom Chakma has yet to recover from the loss and doesn't want to speak to anyone.
Sumita, whose name was just included in the latest electoral roll, stepped forward to narrate the horrific incidents they experienced Saturday.
She alleged 40 to 50 Bangalee settlers equipped with weapons and sticks attacked their village around 10:00am. They beat up the indigenous villagers severely and stabbed some with sharp weapons, leaving 20 people injured.
The attackers also set their houses on fire in presence of army personnel, she alleged.
"The village turned into a battle field after an army sergeant was injured in a counter attack by the angry indigenous people. They hacked him with a sharp weapon during the fight," she continued.
In retaliation, hundreds of bullets were fired on the ethnic people and one hit her mother, she said.
"Everyone of the village including those from the Buddhist monastery fled leaving my bullet-hit mother behind," she added.
"We did not dare to go there and look for my mother as section 144 was imposed in the area by Baghaichhari Upazila Nirbahi Officer AHM Humayun Kabir.
"Later we shrugged off every shred of fear and returned to the spot with the help of some indigenous people and recovered my mother's body."
She said a chopper came to airlift the wounded sergeant, but no-one bothered about the injured ethnic people including her mother.
"I know my mother would not return but I want punishment to those who are responsible for her death," she said.
"We need food, clothe, medicine and food, but till now the government has not done anything for us. We are here passing sleepless nights," she said.
"Where we will go? Who can look after our family now?" she asked as she struggled to contain herself.