Settler Activity |
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2 August 2008The Muslim settlers blockaded former advisor to the caretaker government of Bangladesh and eminent human rights activist Ms. Sultana Kamal while she was returning from Sajek after distribution of relief to the victims of Sajek arson attack at Baghaihat bazaar under Sajek union of Baghaichari upazila in Rangamati district. 11 May 2008Bangladesh army backed settler organization so called Sama Odhikar Andolon (Equal Rights Movement) organizes a seminar at National Press Club in Dhaka. The speakers of this seminar urged the caretaker government to re-establish army camps at all sensitive areas in the CHT for establishing so-called equal rights for the settlers. Indigenous people believe that this seminar was nothing but an attempt to conceal arson attacks on 7 indigenous villages at Sajek union on 20th April 2008. The attack was led by Sama Odhikar Andolon and its leaders Mr. Selim Bahari and Mr. Golam Molla. August 2006Sama Odhikar Andolan (Equal Rights Movement – a Muslim settler organization) organized meeting with the direct help of departing Zone Commander of Naniarchar Lt. Colonel Mohammed Fazlu Haque and newly appointed Zone Commander. In the meeting, they formed a committee consisting of 35 members where Sayed Ali and Salam were selected as President and Secretary respectively. In the meeting, they also decided to step up their activities against the CHT Accord and PCJSS. 19 June 2006The members of Sama Adhikar Andolan (Equal Rights Movement – a Muslim settler organization) attacked a conference of PCJSS in Alikadam under Bandarban district. The Muslim settlers equipped with sticks and rods attacked unarmed workers and supporters of PCJSS. During one hour attack at least 30 PCJSS workers and supporters were injured, 6 of them were seriously wounded. On that day around 11.00 am just on the eve of commencing the conference, 200 Muslim settlers led by Abul Kalam, Chairman of Alikadam union council attacked PCJSS conference. The Muslim settlers destroyed the chairs, tables, door and windows of the hall. Then they set fire on national and party flag of PCJSS hoisted in front of the conference hall. In this attack, the following workers and supporter of PCJSS were injured
The attackers ran after the leaders of PCJSS Mr. Sadhuram Tripura and Chinghla Mong Chak, President and Vice President of PCJSS of Bandarban district respectively who fled away to rest house of Alikadam. The attackers destroyed windows and set fire on curtains of the rest house. The police, military and civil administration did not intervene. A group of police led by Mohammed Asfaq (Sub-Inspector) was deployed for security of the conference. But they remained silent. 24 January 1999Under the usual instructions of the Bangladesh Army and with the active cooperation of the various Transport Worker organizations in the CHT, the Muslim settlers were bringing a huge haul of lethal weapons (to be used in ethnically cleansing the Jummas) to Rangamati, while returning from an Islamic Conference organised by Islamic extremist groups such as Jamaat-e-Islami, Taliban, Harkatul and so forth at Maijbhander Mazar-e-Sharif in Fatikchari area within Chittagong District. But this time, the Police authorities of Rangamati District superseded the standing orders of the Bangladesh Army, confiscated the said weapons and arrested 26 Muslim settlers because recently the Bangladesh Government had slightly taken steps to check the ever deteriorating law and order situation in Bangladesh with a view to placating the Donor Governments. This first confiscation of weapons confirms that the Directorate-General of the Forces Intelligence (DGFI) in collusion with the Islamic fundamentalist groups had always been supplying the Muslim settlers with abundant lethal weapons to enable them to massacre the Jummas as the part and parcel of the state financed Islamization of the CHT scheme. Undoubtedly, the crackdown on the Muslim settlers is quite galling to the DGFI who are master-minding the systematic extermination of the Jummas. So to foil the Bangladesh Government's actions, the DGFI secretly incited the Muslim transport workers in the CHT, to go on strike throughout the CHT for the unconditional release of those 26 arrested terrorists. 18 May 1996A puppet organisation of the Bangladesh Government, the Parbatya Chattagram Jatiya Shanti O Samannay Parishad (PCJSSP) led by Mohammad Saiful Islam Dildar, arranged a conference at Kaptai Town. Many leaders, particularly the prominent leaders of the Jamat-E-Islami participated in this PCJSSP conference to criticise and condemn the JSS, Hill Student Council (HSC), Hill People Council (HPC) and the Hill Women's Federation (HWF). They demanded the Bangladesh Government and the Bangladesh Army to crush all these Jumma organizations who are demanding autonomy for the CHT. 20 April 1996The local Muslim settlers, under the instructions of the military authorities brought out a procession in Barkal Town to incite the Muslim settlers against the JSS and to urge the Bangladesh Government and the Bangladesh military to take stern actions against the JSS. 20 April 1996The PCJSSP arranged a public meeting at Naniachar, stressed the need of law and order in the CHT, and demanded stern actions against the "misled" bunch of the JSS, HSC, HPC and HWF. 15 April 1996The PCSSP held another meeting at Ramgarh Town in Khagrachari District to demand the proper and prompt rehabilitation of all Muslim families throughout the CHT and demanded the total rejection of all demands made by, the JSS. Third week of March 1996Mohammad Mofizur Rahman, president of the Parbatya Gano Parishad (PGP = a military sponsored Muslim organization) issued a written statement demanding the abolition of the prevailing system that reserves the chairmanship of Hill District Councils for the Jumma people. He also demanded that the Muslim settlers be freely settled anywhere in the CHT, that their settlement be expedited, and that all the demands of the JSS be totally ignored in the interest of the majority group of Bangladesh. 17 March 1996The Parbatya Chattagram Jatiyo Samannoy O Shanti Parishad (PCJSSP = a Muslim settler organisation created by the Bangladesh Army) under the chairmanship of Mohammad Saiful Islam Dildar, held a public meeting in Ramgarh Town of Khagrachari District. In the meeting, he declared that permanent peace could be achieved only if the Jumma people accept all the Muslim settlers as the residents of the CHT. Mohammad, Amanullah Khan, the chairman of the UNB (a News Agency of Bangladesh), also spoke to support the statement of Mohammad Dildar, an undercover spokeman of the Bangladesh Army. Clearly, the chairman of the PCJSSP, under the instructions of the army, was conducting disinformation campaign to counter the JSS's just demands, one of which is the immediate expulsion of all Muslim settlers from the CHT in line with the CHT Regulation of 1900. 8 March 1996The PCJSSP held a press conference to blame the JSS and the Government of India for preventing the repatriation of the Jumma refugees now camped in the Indian state of Tripura in a desperate bid to counter the International community's well founded criticism that the Bangladesh Government had failed to rehabilitate the repatriated Jumma refugees in their ancestral villages which are still occupied by the Muslim settlers. 5 March 1996The PCJSSP leaders, organised a public meeting at Lama Town in Bandarban District as part of the Bangladesh Government's disinformation campaign. They urged the Jummas, in particular the local Marma leaders, to build the CHT as the abode of both the Jummas and the Muslim settlers indicating that the PCJSSP had been helping the Bangladesh Government's Islamization of the CHT scheme. Sources:
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