Dhaka – The Rakhine community in Patuakhali and Barguna has decreased significantly due to oppression and land grabbing by influential people in the areas, said a group of citizens who recently visited the areas.The community had around one lakh people several decades back, but now it has only around 2,5000, they said at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity yesterday.
Noted columnist Syed Abul Maksud demanded that the government should appoint a Rakhaine affairs official equivalent to first class magistrate at deputy commissioner office who will monitor the Rakhaine issue in the locality and prepare a report.
Presided over by president Okkyp Nap Pankaj Battacharjee, among others general secretary of Bangladesh Adivasi Forum Sanjib Drong, President of Jatiya Adivasi Parishad Rabindranath Saren, executive director of ALRD Shamsul Huda, information and publicity secretary of BAF Dipayan Khisa were present at the press conference.
The citizens went on a two-day visit to Rakhine areas in Barguna and Patuakhali this month.
People of the Rakhine community are being suppressed in different ways and they are being evicted from their land all over the country, but the situation in Barguna and Patuakhali is the worst, said Robayet Ferdous, associate professor, Department of Mass Communication and Journalism of Dhaka University, who moderated the press conference.
IIED Numan Ahmed said Rakhine people started living in the areas in the beginning of 1800s. There were 144 paras in Barguna and 93 in Patuakhali in 1948, but now the number has come down to 26 and 13 respectively.
Most of the Rakhines have gone to Myanmar due to suppression and land grabbing, he added.
The land grabbers did not even spare worship places, Numan Ahmed said, adding they grabbed most of the land of the century-old Kuakata Bouddha Bihar.
If the government does not give proper attention to the Rakhine, their number will go down to zero, said Sanjeeb Drong, general secretary of Bangladesh Adivasi Forum. – Syaff Reporter
