Representatives of the Chakma community in India on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi “not” to hold any dialogue/ meeting with the “Chief Caretaker” of the interim Bangladesh government, Mohammed Yunus, and also “downgrade” diplomatic relations with the neighbouring country “until the lives and properties of the hill tribes and religious minorities (living there) are protected”.
The twin pleas were made in an 11-page memorandum submitted to the PMO, including photographs capturing the deaths and destruction caused by the “ongoing organised attacks” on the indigenous peoples in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) “by the Bangladesh Army and the illegal plain settlers since September 19”.
A joint statement issued by the seven signatories after submitting the memorandum to the PMO claimed that “at least nine innocent tribals were shot dead and dozens injured at Khagrachari (district in CHT) while over 100 houses and shops have been burnt at Dighinala Sadar” since Thursday in these “organised” attacks.
“The innocent tribals shot dead by the Bangladesh Army personnel were Junan Chakma, 70-year-old Dhan Ranjan Chakma, Rubel Tripura and Lenin Chakma while five unidentified bodies of the hill tribes were lying at Khagrachari hospital,” the statement claimed.
The memorandum also flagged the September 12 reporting by Prothom Alo, a leading daily published from Dhaka, on the “attacks and damage to at least 1,090 houses, business establishments and places of worship belonging to the minority communities between August 5 and 20" after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on August 5 this year.
The memorandum claimed the attacks were being carried out in order “to counter the growing use of the democratic space by the hill people and drive out the hill tribes out of the CHTs”.
On September 18, the indigenous hill tribe students under the banner of the “Sanghat O Boishamyo Birodhi Pahari Chhatra Andolan” (Anti Conflict & Discrimination Tribal Students Movement) organised “March For Identity” at Khagrachari in the CHT “demanding recognition of their rights and guarantee for distinct identities”.
The memorandum pointed out that the Chittagong Hill Tracts was a “tribal dominated area and despite having 98.5 per cent non-Muslims, the Bengal Boundary Commission awarded the region to Pakistan during the partition of India in 1947”.
