News No.
134/2012, Saturdayday, December 22, 2012
A FOURTEEN-YEAR old Jumma girl
was found dead in the village of Barodulu in Kaokhali Upazila of Rangamati district.
She has been identified as Thomaching Marma, 14, of
Barodulu village under Kalampati Union. Her late father’s name is Suithupru
Marma. She is a class eight student of Kaokhali
Girls School.
According to sources, at 4pm yesterday, Friday, she went to a nearby field to bring
back their cows.
As she was getting late, her mother and siblings began to
search around for her and found her naked near the field in the evening.
They suspect that she might have been killed after rape.
‘There were marks on her throat’, a villager said, suggesting she might have
been strangulated to death.
There is a settler village named Nallyachari Uttor Matha
within half a kilometer from where she was recovered.
This village and its adjacent areas were once populated
by Marma people. The Bengali settlers occupied them in the 1980s after driving
the Marmas from their lands.
However, the settlers are not content with these occupied
lands, they want more and claim a large portion of Barodulu lands to be theirs.
They often make forays into these Marma areas and take
away wood, bamboo and sun-grass which are rightfully belong to the Marma
villagers.
A few months ago, Marma villagers planted ginger in their
lands but the settlers destroyed them.
The Marmas immediately replanted again, and now a case is
pending with the Union Council chairman of the area over the disputed land.
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