'10-km crack opens in Borkol in Sunday's tremor'
Our Correspondent, Rangamati
An aftershock struck Rangamati yesterday morning, opening a crack in a wall of the officers' dormitory at the Borkol upazila headquarters and sending about 40,000 people on edge.
The jolt with mild intensity, also felt at the district headquarters, lasted five seconds from 9:21am, the latest in a train of aftershocks in the hill area since Sunday.
Rangamati Deputy Commissioner (DC) Dr Zafar Ahmed Khan said, "Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) of Borkol Ilias Bhuiyan informed me about the quake at 9:30am (yesterday)."
But there was no information about the fresh aftershock from national or international organisations.
Many hills and hillocks developed cracks in tremor shock waves that rattled the Chittagong Hill Tracts and Chittagong city on July 27 leaving one killed, 25 injured and damaging 500 mud houses and buildings.
A 10-kilometre crack opened from Kolabunia to Bhusanchhara in Borkol upazila under the impact of Sunday's tremor measuring 5.09 on the Richter scale, said Shahidul Islam, associate professor of geography at Chittagong University.
Hundreds of cracks in the hills indicate a "massive geological change" in the CHT, which is perched on the earthquake zone, he told reporters at the Deputy Commissioner's Office Thursday after visiting the quake-affected Borkol upazila with meteorologist Mominul Islam of the Chittagong office of the meteorological department.
Experts fear that the Kaptai hydroelectric dam might have developed "hidden cracks" on impact of Sunday's quake and suggested an immediate survey of the dam and other areas.
They fear repeat of tremors and recommended evacuation of people from Aimachhara and nearby villages and shifting of BDR and police camps.
At least 91 houses were destroyed, over 170 others suffered cracks and Aimachhara Health Complex collapsed into rubble in Rangamati in Sunday's tremor.
Kina Kumar Chakma, 29, who became unconscious from shock in the tremor in an outlying village, died on Tuesday, officials said yesterday.
Deputy Minister of CHT Affairs Moni Swapan Dewan is likely to arrive in Rangamati
on August 4 and a team of geologists and meteorologists will visit the quake-affected
areas on August 5.