ZCZC
BSS-10
CHT-VIOLENCE-KHAGRACHHARI
Assumed infight kills six in Khagrachhari
KHAGRACHHARI, Aug 18, 2018 (BSS) – Six people were killed and three
wounded in a sudden gun attack on crowds at a remote village market in
Khagrachhari in what is believed to be a factional fight among rival tribal
outfits in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT).
Police and witnesses said unidentified tribal gunmen launched a sudden
attack at around 7.30 am at Swanirbhar area at the Sadar upazila of the hill
district as United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF) was preparing to stage a
scheduled rally there.
“It appears the attack took place as a sequel of factional infight over
establishing dominance in the region,” Khagrachhari Sadar police station’s
officer in charge Shahadat Hossain told BSS.
He however, said police actions were launched to track down the assailants
to be exposed to justice while extra police force was deployed at the scene
to prevent any further violence.
UPDF’s district coordinator Michael Chakma accused a breakaway faction of
Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity, dubbed as PCJSS-reform, for the
attack, which the outfit rejected outright.
Police and residents at the neighbourhood said all the six slain people
belonged to major Chakma community while five of them were UPDF leaders and
activists including Tapan Chakma, the UPDF-backed student group Pahari
Chhatra Parishad’s (PCP) acting district unit president.
The remaining one was a government’s health department employee.
Doctors at the government-run Khagrachhari Sadar Hospital said the three
wounded people were rushed to the facility after the violence but they
referred them to Chattogram Medical College Hospital (CMCH) for better
treatment after initial medical care.
Officials familiar with the CHT scenario said the rugged region now
witness four rival groups with emergence of two renegade or breakaway
factions of PCJSS and UPDF, a group that emerged to oppose the landmark 1997
CHT Peace Agreement.
They said despite the previous extreme enmity, the main groups of PCJSS,
also called JSS, and UPDF visibly buried largely their old hostility while
their breakaway factions appeared closer to each other.
BSS/CORR-SAH/AR/1457 hrs