Settlers burn down Jumma houses in Laxmichari

chtnews.com
News No. 134/2009, September 25, 2009

The illegal Bengali settlers have burned down 3 Jumma houses in Laxmichari under Khagrachari district, sources say.

Reports reaching from Laxmichari say a group of settlers from Mogaichari launched an overnight raid on the village of Bainamachara under Dulyatoli Union last night and set the houses ablaze.

The houses belong to Naibo Chakma (55) s/o Nayan Sen Chakma, his son Rashik Chakma (33) and Sudikya Chakma (30) s/o Mono Kumar Chakma.

All their belongings in the houses were burnt to ashes.

Bainamachara is about 2 kilometers away from Moghaichari, a concentration of illegal settlers brought in by the government in the 1980s.

The settlers also burned down 4 huts used by the guards of a controversial fruits garden raised by one Anisur Rahman, a Bengali businessman.

Anisur raised the garden on an area of 1,000 acres of land that the Jummas claim they own.

On 17 September, hundreds of villagers protested the illegal grabbing of their community land and uprooted the mango and jackfruit saplings planted there.