Lama (Bandarban), CHT News
Wednesday, August 26, 2026
Meridian Company has been accused of attempting to occupy land belonging to members of the Mro Indigenous community in Sarai Union of Lama Upazila, Bandarban.
The allegation comes amid a longstanding land dispute in the area, where Lama Rubber Industries Company has previously been accused of occupying large areas of land traditionally used and possessed by Mro villagers and allegedly continuing efforts to take control of additional land.
According to local sources, employees of Meridian Company went to land belonging to Langkom Mro on Tuesday morning, August 25, and began planting rubber saplings. Police were informed and later went to the site, temporarily stopping the planting.
Earlier, in late April this year, Meridian Company was also accused of cutting down approximately 1,000 banana plants cultivated by Langkom Mro.
Langkom Mro is the karbari (village head) of Langkom Para in Sarai Union. The village was named after him and currently has 15 families.
Langkom Mro said that in 2013, a manager named Wasim from Meridian Company obtained permission from his father to plant jackfruit saplings on the land.
“At the time, the company manager said they would take the jackfruits once the trees matured and produced fruit, and that after the trees were cut down, we would get our land back,” Langkom Mro said.
He said the company later cut down the jackfruit trees, while his father died in 2014. Since then, he and other villagers have cultivated banana plants and various fruit trees on the land, which they have continued to possess and use.
“We had no problems for all these years. Now Meridian Company is claiming that it purchased the land and has brought workers there to plant rubber saplings,” he said.
According to Langkom Mro, employees of Meridian Company also cut down banana plants, pineapple saplings and papaya trees cultivated by villagers in July last year. A farm house on the land was also allegedly demolished.
He said a complaint was filed with the police over the incident, but no resolution was reached.
Akhtar Zaman, manager of Lama Meridian Agro Limited, denied the allegations of attempted land occupation.
He said the land had been purchased by the company a long time ago and that it had a rubber plantation there.
“Langkom Mro has built a house on the land and is trying to use it forcibly,” Zaman said.
PREVIOUS LAND DISPUTE
The latest allegation is linked to a longstanding land dispute involving Mro and Tripura communities in the area.
In 2022, approximately 400 acres of jum cultivation land traditionally used and possessed by Mro and Tripura villagers in three settlements, including Langkom Mro Para, were allegedly burned by Lama Rubber Industries Company Limited.
Following the incident, residents of Langkom Mro Para and two other settlements reportedly faced a food shortage for around three months. The villagers, who depended on the land and surrounding forests for their livelihoods, subsequently organised various programmes alleging that the jum land had been burned as part of an attempt to evict them from their settlements.
Several organisations also staged protests against the alleged destruction.
Later, in the early hours of January 1, 2023, the homes of Mro villagers were allegedly set on fire by individuals reportedly acting at the behest of the rubber company.
Other alleged incidents included poisoning the stream that served as the community’s only source of drinking water, attacking and vandalising a Buddhist monastery, destroying crops and harassing villagers through what they described as false criminal cases.
Against this backdrop, on April 26, 2023, a delegation from Subcommittee No. 2 of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs, led by ABM Fazle Karim Chowdhury, then a member of parliament from Chattogram-6, visited the area. A delegation from the National Human Rights Commission also inspected the site.
However, no permanent resolution has been reached to date.
Langkom Mro and other Mro and Tripura villagers remain accused in several cases filed by the rubber company. Several people, including Langkom Mro and Rengyen Mro, have also reportedly been imprisoned in connection with those cases.
The site where Meridian Company has now allegedly begun planting rubber saplings lies adjacent to the same 400-acre jum land involved in the earlier dispute. Langkom Mro and residents of his village are again among those affected.
——-
