PCJSS condemned and protested against the attack upon the indigenous Jumma people by the police and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel aiming at evicting them from their ancestral homesteads and lands for establishment of BGB battalion headquarters at Babuchara area under Dighinala upazila in Khagrachari district.
At least 18 people including several women were injured in the clash taken place on 10 June 2014 between the indigenous peoples and members of BGB and police forces over setting up of the BGB Battalion Headquarters.
The BGB undertook an initiative to acquire 31.63 acres of land belonging to the villagers of three indigenous villages namely, Santosh Kumar Karbari Para, Gobinda Karbari Para and Notun Chandra Karbari Para at Babuchhara of Dighinala upazila under Khagrachari hill district to establish BGB Battalion Headquarters. The lands occupied include the lands not only belonged to the indigenous families but also the portion of recorded lands of the nearby Primary School and local Buddhist temple. As a result, at least 21 indigenous families were evicted and lost their ancestral lands. The Primary School where some 200 students had been studying was already closed down.
On 12 June 2014, BGB filed a fabricated case against 100 unknown local indigenous Jumma people with charges of vandalism of BGB camp. It is to be mentioned that the BGB even included the names of two dead persons and one lawyer as defendants. On that day local indigenous people brought out a procession against setting up of BGB camp in Dighinala upazila. On 13 June 2014, police arrested Pradip Chakma and another unknown Jumma person of Jotno Kumar Karbari Para on their way back from the work. The Police also raided their village and closed the road leading to their village.
The said 21 numbers of indigenous Jumma families who became homeless through the incident are still leading a sub-human life in two rooms of the local high school building amid uncertainty. The indigenous families were forcibly evicted from their homes when the BGB personnel fenced off their villages on June 10 and imposed restriction upon the villagers’ entrance into the area. The government has taken no initiative to rehabilitate the evicted families as yet.