Dhaka, Bangladesh – On the night of May 31, Agrojyoti Bhante was brutally attacked by two machete-wielding men at a monastery in Khagrachari, 270km (168 miles) south of capital Dhaka in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT).
The attackers, later identified as two Bengali construction workers who worked at the monastery, also looted about 60,000 takas ($700) from the monastery and left the 47-year-old Buddhist monk, belonging to one of Bangladesh’s Indigenous communities, for dead.
While no accurate data on the number of Indigenous people in Bangladesh is available, a census conducted by the government in 2011 found they are about 1.6 million.
But Indigenous and activist groups claim their population is at least 3 million, or 2 percent, of more than 160 million people in the Muslim-majority country.
সিউলে বঙ্গবন্ধুর জুলিও কুরি পদক প্রাপ্তির ৪৮তম বার্ষিকী উদযাপন | 652644| bd-pratidin.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bd-pratidin.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Sheikh Hasina’s homecoming is a milestone of country’s democracy: President
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File Photo
DHAKA, May 16, 2021 (BSS) – President Md Abdul Hamid today said the homecoming of Awami League President Sheikh Hasina is a milestone of the country’s democracy.
“Her (Hasina’s) historic home return paved the way to establish the spirit of liberation war, the values of independence and democracy here,” he said in a message issued on the occasion of the 41th homecoming day of Sheikh Hasina.
Abdul Hamid said upon returning home, Sheikh Hasina started a movement to recover the country’s democracy and following it, the autocratic government fall through the 1990 mass movement and the democracy got triumph.
Land lost, so is livelihood
65 Mro families in Bandarban’s Lama say rubber company grabbed 200 acres of their jhum land
Photo: Ahnaf Akeef & Darshan Chakma/Star/File
Around 65 Mro families of three villages in Bandarban s Lama upazila are living in fear of eviction from their ancestral homes with no source of livelihood after land grabbers illegally occupied their jhum land last month.
Residents of the three villages Tripura Para, Langkom Mro Para, and Rengyan Mro Karbari Para alleged that Lama Rubber Industries Limited grabbed around 200 acres of their ancestral jhum land.
This latest move came following earlier threats and a false case filed against members of the community several years ago, they said.
Stop hotel construction on Mro land
Civil society members write to CHT affairs minister, army chief
File photo: Hundreds of members of the Mro community brought out a long march from Chimbuk Hill to Bandarban town on February 7 in protest against construction of a five-star hotel and tourist spot in Chimbuk Hill. Photo: Collected Our Correspondent, Bandarban Our Correspondent, Bandarban
Fifty-nine eminent civil society members yesterday sent letters to the Chattogram Hill Tracts affairs minister and the ministry secretary, army chief, and defence and environment ministries demanding the authorities stop the construction of a five-star hotel on Mro land in Bandarban.