PROBLEMS facing the indigenous people of Kulaura upazila were discussed threadbare at a meeting held at the Kulaura upazila auditorium last week.
   At the meeting held at the initiative Eunusur Rahman, deputy commissioner of Moulvibazar, the representatives of Khasia and Garo communities focused on harassments they were being subjected to every now and then by the forest officials and local criminals.
   Prottus Sangman, a leader of the indigenous people, pointed out that the people of their communities have been living in the forest areas of Moulvibazar peacefully from time immemorial. In the past, the indigenous people were never accused of destroying or grabbing forest resources. The indigenous people always created forests in their own interests, he claimed.
   Addressing the meeting, leaders of indigenous people Snew Prosad, Arfils Marli and Oilson Nokra lamented that the officials of the forest department were now blaming them for damaging forests without any valid reason. It was not the indigenous people who were destroying forest resources. Rather the partners of the forest department in the implementation of the social afforestation programme were plundering the forest wealth in a systematic way in connivance with the personnel of the forest department, according to them.
   They deplored harassment of the indigenous people by the employees of the forest department and local miscreants and filing of false cases against them. They cited examples of destruction of their betel leaf plantations and harassment of their young womenfolk by anti-social elements.
   Earlier addressing the meeting, divisional forest officer Laskar Maksudur Rahman charged the members of Khasia and Garo communities with felling forest trees indiscriminately and denuding forests of trees.' Forests are national wealth, not the personal property any particular group of people or community. Hence, they should be preserved in the national interest, 'he observed.
   He also blamed a section of journalists of blowing any issue of forest out of proportion only to mislead the people.
   In his speech, the deputy commissioner called upon the indigenous people to preserve the forest resources and at the same time counselled the forest staffs not to disturb the indigenous people unnecessarily.
   He was of the view that the higher authority should demarcate the lands in the forest areas for use by the indigenous people. Demarcation of forest lands would go a long way for a permanent settlement of disputes between the forest department and the indigenous people, he noted.
   The long awaited meeting was attended by the high officials of the district and upazila administration, representative of the indigenous people and chairmen of five union parishads.
   Nearly 50,000 indigenous people belonging to Khasia, Garo and Tripura communities live in Moulvibazar. Of them, 30,000 live in Kulaura upazila alone.

A teenaged boy who was hacked by criminals at Manoharganj upazila in Comilla on Thursday night died in hospital on Saturday.
   The victim is Md Zakir, 17, son Anower Hossain of village Uttar Shampur under the same upazila.
   Family sources said Zakir was attacked by the criminals when he was returning home along with his mother from his sister's residence at about 11:00pm Thursday.
   Locals took critically wounded Zakir to Manoharganj Upazila Health Complex where he died early Saturday.
   The police sent the body to the Comilla Medical Collage Hospital morgue for a post-mortem examination. A murder case was lodged with the police.
   Previous enmity might be the reason of the killing, suspected the family of Zakir.
   Meanwhile, a UNB report from Narsingdi adds: The body of a man, abducted earlier, was found in a cropland at village Sarrabad under Belabo upazila on Friday.
   The victim is Rais Mia, 45, of village Sarrabad under the same upazila. The police said someone called Rais out of his house on Thursday night and he was missing since then.

A FIVE-YEAR-OLD boy was killed in a road accident at Bahadurpur on the Jessore-Magura Road under Jessore sadar upazila on Friday morning.
   The deceased is Tuhin, son of van puller Eakram of village Bahadurpur.
   Locals and the police said Tuhin bought an ice-cream and was crossing the road when a Dhaka bound coach hit him a about 8:00am. He was taken to Jessore General Hospital where the attending doctors declared him dead.
   In protest, a mob blocked the road for about two hours.