About 30 houses of landless people were burnt in an arson attack carried out by mercenaries of land owners (jotdars) at New Char under Haimchar upazila in Chandpur yesterday, which also left at least 20 people injured, including women and children.
The attackers also looted cattle and paddy of the poor people amid the reign of terror at about 9:00am.
“Panicked by the raid, all male inhabitants of the 8-sqkm char, which surfaced in the Meghna river, fled the area fearing further attacks,” says a spot account of the marauding.
The attack was carried out in a sequel to conflict over paddy harvest and land possession between jotedars and landless people.
Such incidents, often bloody fighting, over possession of char or khas lands take place more often than not in different parts of the country.
Police Superintendent Krishna Pada Roy said after the attack police were deployed in the area, 8 km west of the upazila headquarters, to maintain law and order.
He, however, suspected that the day's arson attack might have taken place due to longstanding dispute between the jotdars and landless people over the reaping of crops and possession of landed property in New Char.
Meanwhile, soon after the arson attack, most of the male members of the affected families left their homes and took shelter in safe and distant places.
None was arrested in this connection till filing of this report.