chtnews.com
News No. 42/2014, Wednesday,
June 25, 2014
A LOCAL Jamat-i-Islam
leader, Mahabubul Haq Selim aka Selim Huzur, has reportedly grabbed a
200-year-old cremation ground used by Tripura community in the village of Mongolchand
Karbari Para (or ‘Rajshahi Tila’ as Bengali settlers call it) under
Bhuachari Union of Kamalchari in Khagrachari district.
This has been stated
in a memorandum addressed to the Minister for Religious Affairs, in which the
villagers demanded the restoration of the cremation ground.
In the memo, handed to
the Khagrachari Deputy Commissioner on 18 June, Kamal Joy Tripura, former
member of Kamalchari Union (Ward No. 2), narrated the land grabbing practices
of Selim in the area.
The memo states that
Mahabubul Haq Selim, also an assistant religious teacher of Khagrachari
Municipal High School, grabbed much of the 2-acre cremation ground in 2004 and
made a killing by selling it to a number of Bengali families.
Now Selim is trying to
grab the remaining 0.5 decimal, the memo alleged and said, “The
two-hundred-year-old cremation ground is on the verge of total extinction”.
It further said, “The
matter was raised with local law enforcers and complaint was made to the Anti
Corruption Commission, but to no avail.”
There is likelihood
that the illegal occupation of the cremation ground may lead to communal riots
between Jumma villagers and Bengali settlers in the area, the memo, signed by
84 persons, said.
They demanded that the
matter be investigated thoroughly and impartially in public interest, the
cremation ground restored and those found guilty be punished.
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