Home minister: Police, Ansar, BGB to be deployed at vacant CHT army camps

UNB

Published at 09:14 am December 25th, 2020

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal speaks at a special law and order meeting in Khagrachhari on Thursday, December 25, 2020 Dhaka Tribune

‘We want to see Chittagong Hill Tracts as a peaceful region and want it to go ahead with all the facilities of the plain land,’ said Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal

To government will deploy police, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Ansar at the vacant Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) army camps to end bloodshed, extortion and terrorism in the area.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said this on Thursday while speaking at a special law and order meeting in Khagrachhari.

BGB will be deployed at camps located at remote and border areas, the minister said.

“Co-existence between indigenous people and settlers at CHT should be ensured. For this, all the issues including land dispute will have to be resolved.”

“We want to see Chittagong Hill Tracts as a peaceful region and want it to go ahead with all the facilities of the plain land,” Kamal said.

“We want to establish peace without bloodshed,” the minister said.

“However, we are not weak. And we don’t want to get things done through the use of force. We believe that peace will be established through discussions.”

On December 2, 1997, PCJSS (Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity) signed the peace deal with the then Awami League government, ending over two decades of tribal insurgency and bloodletting in the hill districts.

But a group of ethnic minority people, led by Prasit Bikash Khisa, formed the United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF) in 1998 opposing the peace treaty.

PCJSS also faced a split as some of its members quit it in 2007 and formed PCJSS (Reformists) led by Sudha Sindho Khisa.

UPDF’s other armed group also formed a separate platform the UPDF (Democratic), led by Tapan Jyoti Chakma (alias Borma and Jalwa) on November 15, 2017.

According to official statistics, 376 people, including 120 Bengalis, were killed in three districts of the CHT in various incidents like extortion and conflict over supremacy from January 2014 to October this year.

Besides, 536 people, including 169 Bengalis, were abducted during the period.

Sources at the local police and intelligence agencies said 105 extortionists in the CHT had been detained by law enforcers from January 2019 to September 2020.