Three children have fallen victims to mindless soil extraction from hills in Kulaura upazila of Moulvibazar.

A pal of gloom descended at Islamnagar village in Vatera union of the upazila where three children were killed as a large chunk of earth from a hill suddenly fell on them on Saturday.

Locals said mindless hill cutting is responsible for the deaths of the children.

The deceased were Nurul Amin Sumon, 13, son of Tasibur Rahman, Nahid Islam, 12, son of Abdus Salam of Islamnagar village and Kabir Hossain, 7, son of Abdul Karim. The trio died on the spot while they were searching for a bird's nest. All of them were madrasa students.

Victim Sumon's mother Monowara Begum said, "My son is gone. What will I do now? He was my dearest son. After the Zuhr prayers, he left the house without eating rice and he won't return ever."

"Why did I let my son go out that day?" lamented victim Kabir's father Abdul Karim, sobbing uncontrollably. The entire village was mourning the death of the three children.

Kamruzzaman, assistant manager of Vatera Rubber Garden, said soil was being cut freely.

"We don't know who is cutting the soil. However, a sand-filled pickup van was seized 15 days ago," he said.

But he did not answer the question as to why legal action was not taken against that clique.

Vatera UP Chairman Syed AKM Nazrul Islam said the soil of the hills became soft due to the morning rain and the tragic accident happened.

"I have provided Tk 5,000 to the three families immediately after the incident as per the instruction of the UNO," he added.

Kulaura Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) ATM Farhad Chowdhury said, "We have run mobile courts in different areas including Vatera to stop razing hills in Kulaura and have imposed fines on those involved. The families of the victims will be given financial assistance of Tk 10,000 by the district administration. "

Contacted, Bodrul Huda, assistant director of the DoE in Moulvibazar, said "We are getting a lot of complaints of hill cutting from Vatera. I visited different spots last year and found that hills had been razed without permission. All the hills in the area are being razed with the help of the local UP chairman. I also wrote a letter to my higher authority accordingly."

Abdul Karim Kim, an executive member of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolan, said local influential and rubber plantation authorities are directly involved in cutting these hills and sand lifting. That is why there have been many fatal accidents. And in this rainy season, it will increase manifold.