Victims wait for relief

Army personnel patrol Pilak village of Ramgarh upazila in Khagrachhari yesterday, after three people were killed in a clash between Bangalee settlers and indigenous people on Sunday. Inset, Jatindra Lal Tripura MP urging Bangalees to stay calm at Boro Pilak Junior High School. Photo: Anurup Kanti Das

The 40 families, whose houses were burnt during Sunday's clashes between indigenous people and Bangalee settlers, are passing days under the open sky as the local administration could not provide them shelter.
Local lawmaker Jatindra Lal Tripura, meanwhile, pledged that the victims will be rehabilitated.
The district administration said it would distribute rice and corrugated iron sheet among the victims of Sunday's violence whereas Kujendra Lal Tripura, chairman of Khagrachhari Hill District Council, pledged three bundles of corrugated iron sheets and necessary financial assistance to each of them.
Sunday's violence left three people dead, 20 injured and the houses burnt. That night Khagrachhari Deputy Commissioner Anisul Haque Bhuiyan formed a three-member committee headed by Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) Mohammad Salahuddin to probe the incident.
Other members of the committee are Additional Superintendent of Police in Khagrachhari Delwar Hossain Sayedee and Ramgarh Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Gopal Chandra Das. The committee has been asked to submit its report within two working days.
To defuse the tension, MP Jatindra Lal and Md Nawsher Ali, deputy inspector general of police, Chittagong range, along with officials of the local administration yesterday morning visited Shankhola Para where Sunday's first clash between the two groups occurred.
Urging locals to maintain peace in the area, the lawmaker promised to bring the culprits to book.
The compensation will be distributed after the local administration assesses the loss, the UNO told The Daily Star.
Maj General Ashab Uddin, general officer commanding of 24 infantry division, distributed Tk 25,000 each among families of the dead and Tk 5,000 each among other victims, said a press release of Inter-Services Public Relations.
In the afternoon, the lawmaker and officials held a public meeting at Jaliapara Government Primary School attended by some 200 Bangalee settlers and a few Marma leaders.
Asking the authorities to solve the long-standing issues in the hill tracts, the participants said such violence would repeat otherwise.
District Superintendent of Police Abu Kalam Siddique, Maj Gen Ashab Uddin, local leader Congeri Marma, Ramgarh upazila chairman Belayed Hossain Bhuiyan and other officials of the district administration also attended the meeting.
Section-144, imposed after the violence at 7:30pm in both Ramgarh and Manikchhari upazilas, is still in force.
Some Adivasis yesterday filed a case with Manikchhari Police Station on charges of arson and looting against some unidentified Bangalees.
Visiting the areas, this correspondent found the victims were eagerly waiting for the local administration to arrange some sort of makeshift shelter for them.
Standing near his burnt-down house, Ukra Marma, of Mohamunitila in Manikchhari, said, “Some unknown people set fire to my tin-roofed house for nothing. Where would I go now?”
Khairunnesa of Ramgarh said, “My family has been living in the area since 1982 and giving extortion money to a bunch of tribal miscreants since then to co-exist. And finally we lost everything.”
The ownership of the 5-acre disputed land over which the violence erupted is yet to be settled.
Contacted, Ramgarh UNO Gopal Chandra said, “We will sit to look into the matter. We are presently assessing the loss and thinking of compensating the victims.”
Meanwhile, the dead bodies were taken to Khagrachhari Sadar Hospital for autopsy yesterday morning.
Crying out loud, Uma Rani Sarkar, wife of dead Sunil Sarkar of Boro Pilak area in Ramgarh, said at the hospital, "What was our mistake? How do I live now all alone with a four-year-old kid?"