Eight illegal hill dwellers held

Eight illegal hill dwellers were detained yesterday after they went to the Chittagong deputy commissioner with an application seeking electricity supply in their area.

The men are all residents on the hills and hill-slopes of Jungle Salimpur area under Sitakunda upazila of Chittagong where a landslide on July 21 took the lives of five people.

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Electricity supply to the illegal hill-dwellers in the area was cut off after the incident.  

The detainees were identified as Md Amjad Hossain, Abu Taher, Bashir Ullah, Jodu Mohon Das, Shoilen Baroi, Md Jamal, Moktar Ahmed and Md Chhadekur Rahman.

Md Touhidul Islam, staff officer to the Chittagong DC, said the men were detained at the direction of the DC.

The application they brought carried signatures of the president and secretary of Chittagong City Chhinnomul Bostibasi Samonnoy Sangram Parishad, he added.

They have come with a 'caprice' he said which the authority is treating as proof of their confession that they are committing a crime by illegally residing in the area.

Legal action would be taken against them, the officer said.