Development organisation Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) and its associate partners yesterday strongly condemned the arson attacks on houses and shops of indigenous people at Tintila and Manikjhorchhara in Longadu upazila of Rangamati.

MJF in a press statement said over 200 houses and shops in Tintila, 40 houses in Manikjhorchhara and 40 in Baittapara were completely gutted by the blaze.

The attack, which started centring recovery of the body of a Bangalee settler in Khagrachhari, cannot be supported at all, it added.

The body of local Jubo League man Nurul Islam Nayan was recovered by police from beside the Khagrachhari-Dighinala road at Charmile on Thursday. Later, several hundred people from different Bangalee-dominated unions brought out a procession carrying the body and attacked indigenous community houses in the villages on Friday morning.

"We all have to be united to stop such attacks. At the same time, legal steps will have to be taken against the perpetrators, " said Shaheen Anam, executive director of MJF, adding, "These miscreants are the enemy of the country."