Saturday August 14 2004 10:26:57 AM BDT
AKM ZAHOORUL HUQ, Rangamati, August 13
The Chittagong Hill Tracts have once again turned volatile following the
killing of six persons, including a member of the security forces, and
abduction of 13 others in ten days.
The police rounded up 12 persons suspecting their involvement in these
incidents, sources in the police said.
Amid the recent spurt in the number of murders, retaliatory-murders,
abductions, counter-abductions and extortion, the pro- and anti-peace
accord activists of the Parbattya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity and
the United Peoples' Democratic Front have been blaming each other for
the incidents.
A union parishad member of the Sadar union of the remote Langadu upazila
was shot dead on August 5. Police recovered his body from Kharikata, 25
kilometers from the upazila headquarters.
Ten tribesmen, including a union parishad member, were kidnapped from
Dabua Bazar in Kaukbah upazila on August 6. Seven of them were freed the
following day but kidnappers held the three others hostage demanding a
ransom of Tk 7,00,000.
Armed cadres of the Samity and the Front were reportedly responsible for
these incidents, the police said quoting the locals.
The killing of a couple at Gorosthan in Borkal upazila and kidnapping of
a trader from Tabalchhari in the town within 48 hours of the Langadu and
Kaukbah incidents caught the residents by surprise.
Tension prevailed in the region after the killing of a member of
security force and injuring another in the inaccessible jungles of
Baghaichbari on August 2, which led to the armed clash between the
Pahari Chhatra Parishad and Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal in the Rangamati
Government College.
The newly elected member of Langadu Sadar union parishad, Shukra Kumar
Chakma, scheduled to take oath on Monday, was shot dead on August 6 by
tribal militants. Two associates of Ububan Kumar Chakma were also
killed.
Shuban who runs a departmental store was kidnapped on August 6 in broad
daylight from his business place by a band of armed tribal youths and
freed Saturday reportedly on payment of Tk 50,000.
After an interval of 60 hours, two more tribal businessmen were
kidnapped from Panchhari in Kaukhali upazilas Saturday morning allegedly
by the activists loyal to democratic front.