Indigenous Rakhaine people appeal to PM to protect Buddhist temple and cemetery at Teknaf in Cox’s Bazaar district

Indigenous Rakhaine people appeal to PM to protect Buddhist temple and cemetery at Teknaf in Cox’s Bazaar district

A Buddhist temple of indigenous Rakhaine community was destroyed by Bengali Muslim land grabbers at Teknaf upazila in Cox’s Bazaar district with the intention to occupy land. Land grabbers have driven away the monk of the temple through physical attack and destroyed the images of Lord Buddha and looted the valuable a few other images. Rakhaine community urged the Prime Minister of Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh, but no action has been taken so far.

It is mentionable that Teknaf upazila (sub-district) of the Cox’s Bazaar district is one of the best tourism spots in Bangladesh. Many historical and religious institutions of indigenous Rakhaine Buddhists in several places of Cox’s Bazaar are regarded as the attractive sites for the public and foreign tourists. The indigenous Rakhaine people are proprietor and possessor of the ancient ethnic and cultural tradition of Bangladesh. The Rakhine people enriched the tradition of Bangladesh through building many Buddhist temple (Kyang), Jadi (tombstone) and monuments in the shape of their religious way of life.

The Kyang (Buddhist temple) of south Hnila of Teknaf upazila (sub-district) is one of those formations. It was built more than two hundred years ago. The temple is being located on 11.00 acres of land and is being regarded as a very holly place for the indigenous Rakhaine and Marma peoples. But a few land grabbers have targeted the temple for clutch. Consequently, the former Member of Parliament (MP) Prof. Mohammad Ali and his son Rashed Mahmud Ali, along with their cadres, have started to grab the land of the temple by force. They have driven away the monk of the temple through physical attack and threatening to death and they destroyed the images of Lord Buddha and looted the valuable a few other images. They threatened to casualty the local peaceful indigenous Rakhaine people when they had protested the perpetration. The land grabbers also have started to bui! ld houses on the land of graveyard of indigenous Rakhaine people alongside the temple, by means of grabbing the land by force.  

The aforementioned dominant, authoritative land grabbers have already built houses in several places to affirm the illegal grabbing of lands of the Buddhist temple and burial ground of the indigenous Rakhaine people. They will swallow up the whole hundred years old historical Buddhist temple very soon, if there is no any appropriate measure. The lays of the Buddhist temple are living in warning and panic due to the continuous attack and fanatic activities of the land grabbers.

In this backdrop, the local peaceful and helpless Rakhaine people have appealed to the Prime Minister of Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh, in a memorandum dated on 17 February 2011, to take necessary measures to hand over the lands of Buddhist temple and burial ground to the temple management committee of Rakhaine community by means of set free from the land grabbers. They also demanded to take necessary measures to preserve the Buddhist temple and cemetery immediately.

----
Kapaeeng Foundation
(A Human Rights Organization for Indigenous Peoples of Bangladesh)
Shalma Garden, House # 23/25, Road # 4, Block # B, PC Culture Housing, Mohammadpur, Dhaka-1207, Telephone: +880-2-8190801
E-mail: kapaeeng.foundation@gmail.com, kapaeeng.watch@gmail.com