The government says that high tide of development spreads across the county, but actually thousands of people of the minority communities are sinking by the so called tide: Santu Larma

Indigenous community leader Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma came down heavily on the government saying that thousands of people from the minority communities are sinking under the high tide of country’s “so-called development”.

“The government says that high tide of development spreads across the county, but actually thousands of people of the minority communities are sinking by the so called tide,” said the president of Bangladesh Adivasi Forum.

His remarks came this afternoon at a press conference at a Dhaka hotel to mark the International Day of the World's Indigenous on August 9.

Larma, popularly known as Santu Larma, alleged, “We firmly want to say that there is no reflection of the development in the lives of the community people who live in the country’s rural areas.”

“The communities are facing crisis of existence due to land grabbing, oppression and violence against them,” he added.

Continuous incidents of land grabbing turned them into minority community in their areas where they were the majority at a time, said Larma, also president of Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity (PCJSS), while reading out the statement at the conference.

Noted columnist and writer Syed Abul Maksud, Oikya Nap President Pankaj Bhattacharya and Adivasi Forum General Secretary Sanjeeb Drong, among others, also spoke at the occasion.