Dhaka, Apr 21: About a dozen homes were looted and set on fire during clashes between tribesmen and settlers over a land dispute in the southeastern Bangladesh hills, local officials said today. The clashes occurred yesterday in the remote Bhuachari area, Khagrachari district, of the Chittagong hill tracts region, local officials told reporters.
Police and army personnel have been deployed in a bid to defuse tension in the scenic area. Bengali speakers from the plains were settled in the region under government patronage in the mid-1970s, leading to frequent friction on land issues.
The incident comes amid reports of increasing violence and fears that fresh insurgency could break out in the rugged Chittagong hill tracts, bordering India and Myanmar, due to a lack of development in the region. The government recently said it would launch a massive development work in the hill areas. Bureau Report