chtnews.com
News No. 52/2010, March 12, 2010
The communal forces in Khagrachari have tried to use a fire accident as a pretext to start another round of communal riots against the Jumma people, sources say.
According to sources the fire was originated from the kitchen of a settler house in Rajyo Moni Para under Khagrachari Sadar Upazila in the small hours of 11 March.
As the fire fighters failed to reach the spot on time, the fire spread to other four houses in the locality.
The army and local civil administration are trying to use the incident to whip up anti-Jumma feelings of the settlers, locals alleged.
The army personnel who visited the spot were reported to have instigated the settlers to “protest”.
“It is the terrorists who have torched your houses. Why are you keeping mum? Why don’t you protest against it?” the army is reported to have told the settlers.
The district administration, Fire Brigade and the police have all tried to interpret the fire accident as a terrorist attack.
The Khagrachari Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Abdullah, Superintendent of Police Abul Kalam Siddiqe, Additional Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Gias Uddhin Mogol and Executive Magistrate Mohammad Zainal Abedin visited the place of occurrence today.
Rajjya Moni Para is located in the southern tip of Khagrachari town. The district’s women’s college is also located here.
One Jumma resident said, “First of all, police patrol the area all the time. Secondly, why should any Jumma set fire to their houses? The Jumma people themselves are living in fear after the 23 February communal attacks that left about one hundred of their houses burnt and destroyed.”
“In every communal riot it is invariably the stronger communities which start it,” commented an NGO executive, who is currently researching on the patterns of communal attacks in CHT.
He said that during the turbulent years of so-called counter-insurgency there had been numerous attempts to find pretexts to set off communal violence directed at Jumma villagers.
Citing an example he said the settlers had once secretly put the dead body of a settler near the house of late Upendra Lal Chakma at Mahajonpara, who was then in Tripura refugee camp. “The settler died a natural death, but yet they tried to use him to launch attacks on Jumma areas.”
Similar incidents also took place in southern CHT district of Bandarban and other areas, he added.
“As recently as July last year the settlers resorted to the killings of their fellow brothers to thwart the withdrawal of the army from CHT. As the police administration acted somewhat neutrally at the time the settlers’ attempt to start communal riots failed,” he said.
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