Hill Voice, December 25, 2024, Bandarban: It has been reported that miscreants have burnt down 17 houses of indigenous Tripura Christians, residents of Purba Betchara Tangjhiri Para village, in No.8 Ward of Sarai Union of Lama Upazila under Bandarban district.
Since there was no church in their village, so when the villagers went to visit relatives in neighboring villages just day before Christmas, a group of miscreants took the opportunity to set fire to those houses at around 1 am today (December 25).
It is known that there are 19 houses of 19 Tripura Christian families in the village of Purba Betchara Tangjhiri Para. Out of them, only two are intact. Some people from the neighboring villages also call Purba Betchara Tangjhiri Para village as the Natun Tangjhiri Para.
The Karbari (village head) of this village, Paisapru Tripura, said, “This is our old village. Four or five years ago, a group of people forcibly evicted the village by introducing themselves as ‘People of SP’. After the fall of the Awami League government on August 5, the occupants left the place. After that, 19 Tripura families came there and built houses and started living there. Since there is no church here, the residents of the new village left their houses empty on the occasion of Christmas and went to the neighboring Tangjhiri Para yesterday (December 24) night. And in the meantime, miscreants came and set fire to the houses and burnt them to ashes.”
Locals also said that three or four years ago, a group of people came there and said that the land in the said village had been leased in the name of the wife of former IGP Benazir Ahmed. On that pretext, those people forcibly evicted the residents of the village and made a plantation there.
The names of the owners of the houses affected by the fire, as initially received, are: 1. Gunga Moni Tripura, son of Astaniya Tripura, family member 4; 2. Chandamoni Tripura, son of Nagchandra Tripura, family member 7; 3. Siyandra Tripura, son of Amada Tripura, family member 7; 4. Bidya Chandra Tripura, son of Bishawmbh Tripura, family member 5; 5. Bijoy Tripura, son of Ujirang Tripura, family member 4; 6. Obadiya Tripura, son of Bamichandra Tripura, family member 6; 7. Tikram Tripura, son of Jamatia Tripura, family member 10; 8. Ansarai Tripura, son of Dugacharan Tripura, family member 7; 9. Gren Tripura, son of Rangtaha Tripura, family member 5; 10. Tarasing Tripura, son of Dawtaha Tripura, family member 7; 11. Ratmanik Tripura, son of Jagrang Tripura, family member 4; 12. Joychandra Tripura, son of Chaindapru Tripura, family member 7; 13. Marjhel Tripura, son of Patijan Tripura, family member 8; 14. Gungarang Tripura, son of Balajan Tripura, family member 4; 15. Gunga Manik Tripura, son of Balajan Tripura, family member 6; 16. Bashichandra Tripura, son of Monajan Tripura, family member 5 and 17. Ajaram Tripura, son of Bashichandra Tripura, family member 4.
It is reported that the affected people are currently living in extreme hardship under the open sky even in the severe winter.
