Samo Odhikar Andolon and its student wing Parbatya Bangalee Chhatra Parishad called off a road and waterway blockade programme they had announced in three hill districts for Thursday protesting ‘harassment’ of their leaders.
The Chittagong Hill Tracks (CHT) Land Commission on Settlement of Land Disputes sought application from the affected refugees to settle land dispute in the hill region.
Leaders of settlers in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) have called blockade on March 18 to protest arrest and repression on the settlers.
Progressive Democratic Party chairman Ferdous Ahmed Quarishi has accused the United States of planning to establish a Christian-state in the Chittagong Hill Tracts by converting the Buddhists to Christianity. He also said that the decision to withdraw army and Bengali settlers from the region CHT was an act of sedition.
About one-third of Khagrachhari municipality residents have been accused in six cases filed in connection with February 23 violence. As a result, many innocent people, both Bangalee and indigenous, have been arrested in the drives of joint forces since February 23.
Some 65000 acres of land remain uncultivated in the three hill districts every year for lack of agricultural inputs and farmers’ knowledge of modern technology. Department of Agricultural Extension sources said if these arable lands could be brought under cultivation additional crops worth about Tk 30 crore could be produced per year.
Ameer of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Matiur Rahman Nizami yesterday urged the government for deployment of army in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) to ensure security of life and property of the people living in the region. In a statement issued yesterday Nizami expressed grave concern over loss of lives and property in widespread violence in Baghaichhari. He said several hundred houses have been set on fire and a tense situation was prevailing there.
A regional rights group claimed Saturday that at least three tribal people were killed in army fire at Baghaichhari, Rangamati, on Saturday as clashes continued from the previous night. A local council leader named five tribal men killed in the gunfire.
A new sport has emerged in a country which has a reputation for being one of the flattest in the world - mountain biking in Bangladesh. Bangladesh may only have a few hills where mountain biking is possible.
The state-run mobile phone operator Teletalk brought 22 upazilas of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) under its network coverage on Monday. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formally inaugurated the network from her office in the capital talking to Post and Telecommunications Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju, who called her from Lama upazila auditorium of Bandarban over mobile phone, at about 11:00am.
