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Fear stalks Garos in forest homes

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
Insecurity stalks the indigenous people in their Modhupur forest homes after ruling BNP activists allegedly threatened them in the wake of violence that locals say is aimed at upsetting their movement against an eco-park.
Locals claimed Bangalee Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) activists, armed with firearms and machetes, barged into the forest village of Jalchatra-Pachish Mile on Wednesday night and threatened the indigenous people not to raise their voice again
the park.
Many Garos shut down their shops and left their homes to seek security elsewhere, locals said.
The government is planning to develop an eco-park under about Tk 9 crore Madhupur National Park Development Project in the 3,000-acre heart of the sal forest, sparking protest from indigenous people who live in the forest for ages and fear the project will destroy their peace.
The threat came after a tempo of BNP activists ran into a procession of Garo people who were returning
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home in procession from a rally on Wednesday in protest against the killing of Piren Slan.
Locals said the processionists damaged the tempo, 'taking the bait to create a religious divide' between the indigenous people who are predominantly Christian and the Bangalee mostly Muslim.
They said after the incident, the BNP activists spread the rumour that the Christian Garos ransacked the tempo and assaulted its Muslim women passengers.
The BNP activists also attacked the convoy of legislator Kader Siddiqui, who was returning from the Joinagachha house of Piren, at Jalchhatra bus stand the same day.
They smashed the windshields of most vehicles of the convoy and wounded Abu Jafar Alam, officein-charge of Modhupur Police Station, who was trying to save the lawmaker.
Jafar is now undergoing treatment at a local hospital.
Siddiqui blamed the BNP for the attack at a press briefing at his house and his Krishak Sramik Janata League staged a rally in Dhaka in protest.
Protesters at the rally said the government was trying to evict the indigenous people from their forest villages in the name of developing the eco-park.
They demanded exemplary punishment to the attackers.
Bangladesh Forum for Indigenous People (BFIP) also staged a protest rally at Central Shaheed Minar yesterday to condemn the killing of Piren and attacks on ethnic Garos in Modhupur and protest against the eco-park project.
Sita Nakrek, the widow of Piren, and their baby girl attended the rally, among others.