A protest rally held on 21 May, 1989; Dhaka, Bangladesh. Feature Today is May 4, Langadu Massacre Day. Today marks the 33rd anniversary o...
Today is May 4, Langadu Massacre Day. Today
marks the 33rd anniversary of this massacre.
On this day in 1989, the Settler Bengalis, with the
help of the Army and the Village Defense Force (VDP), carried out the planned
massacre in the hilly villages of Langadu Upazila of Rangamati District. This
caused many hill casualties. Settlers Bengali burned down houses and destroyed
Buddhist temples and Buddha statues. But even today there has been no trial for
this genocide.
According to Amnesty International, retaliatory
attacks on hill villagers in Langadu began two and a half hours after Langadu
Upazila Chairman Abdur Rashid Sarkar was shot dead near his office on May 4,
1989, at 4-5 pm.
At least 36 men, women, and children were killed in
the retaliatory attack. However, the actual death toll could be higher, the
report said. Although the peacekeepers were blamed for the death of Abdur
Rashid Sarkar, Amnesty International did not find any cause, the report said.
"At least six villages were attacked, hundreds
of houses, numerous Buddhist temples, and two Christian churches were set on
fire," the Amnesty report said.
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Survivors flee to the hill and forests for shelter,
and a large number of them cross the Bangladesh border and take refuge in the
Indian state of Tripura. ”
Chakma Chief Barrister Debashish Roy, former Member
of Parliament Chaithoyai Roaza, former Member of Parliament Sudipta Dewan,
former Adviser to the President Subimal Dewan, Rangamati District Council
Chairman Gautam Dewan, and Rangamati Sadar Division Chairman demanded to
justice and handed over a memorandum to the Rangamati Deputy Commissioner.
In the memorandum, they described the horrors of the
massacre. They mentioned that ``Anil
Bihari Chakma, a member of Parbatya Zila Parishad, former chairman of Langadu
Union Parishad and headman of Langadu Mouza No. 3, was attacked at his
residence despite all security measures being taken at the Upazila Sadar.
Fortunately, he survived, but many of his wives and neighbors (who took hideout
in Headman's residence) were brutally murdered. The assassins did not stop
killing these innocent women, men, and children with firearms including knives
and spears. The bodies were thrown into the house and set on fire. Anil Bihari
Chakma took his wife's body out of the house and kept it under guard all night
in the forest around the house. When they went to the police station in the
morning to report the incident, they did not find any trace of the body. Due to
the dire nature of the situation, it was not possible to bury the bodies
according to religious rules. " (Source: Radar, Logang Genocide Number).
The country was under military rule at the time of
the incident. The dictator Ershad was in the seat of power. As a result, the
news of this barbaric massacre was not published or allowed to be published in
any newspaper in Bangladesh at that time.
The Greater Chittagong Hill Tracts Student Council
was born on 20 May ’89 in protest of this genocide.
The Pahari Chhatra Parishad held a silent procession
on the streets of Dhaka on May 21, 1969, and organized a protest rally in front
of the National Press Club to formally protest against this horrific genocide.
In it, the leaders of the Pahari Chhatra Parishad strongly condemned the
barbaric killings and demanded compensation for the affected families,
including the publication of a white paper through judicial investigation and
punishment of the guilty.
On May 30, 1989, Buddhist monks staged a silent
protest in Dhaka in protest of this barbaric massacre.
But in this long 33 years of power shifts in the
country, no government has taken any disciplinary action against those involved
in the genocide. Not only that, more than a dozen genocides in the Chittagong
Hill Tracts so far have not been brought to justice. Even the proper
investigation report of these genocides has not been released to date.
As these killings in the Chittagong Hill Tracts have
not been brought to justice, the hill people have to face repeated communal
attacks. Such barbaric attacks did not stop even after the CHT Accords. On the
contrary, it can be said that more communal attacks have taken place in the CHT
than before the agreement.
Witnessing the genocide, on June 2, 2017, another barbaric communal attack was carried out on the Langudu. Settler Bengalis, in collaboration with the army administration, attacked several villages in the hills, burning more than two hundred houses and burning to death an 80-year-old woman. In the same vein, communal attacks were carried out on the hills in Langadu in 2011.
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The government should take the initiative of proper
justice by publishing the white paper on all the genocides that have taken
place in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, including the Langadu genocide. Remember,
the people will continue to demand justice for these killings until justice is
done.
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