ZCZC
BSS-18
CHT-VIOLENCE-KHAGRACHHARI-LEAD
Violence in hill kills seven in Khagrachhari
(UPDATES with more casualty, escalated violence)
KHAGRACHHARI, Aug 18, 2018 (BSS) – Seven people were killed and seven
wounded as violence assumed to be caused by a factional fights among rival
tribal groups erupted in Khagrachhari hill district here.
Officials and witnesses said gunmen first shot six people dead attacking
on crowds at a village market at Swanirbhar area of the Sadar upazila at
about 7.30 am as United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF) was preparing to
stage a scheduled rally there.
They said five of the dead were UPDF leaders and activists while the
remaining attack victim was a government health employee.
Three people were wounded in the attack while doctors in Khagrachhari
referred them to Chittagong Medical College Hospital as their injuries
appeared serious.
The second gun attack was carried out allegedly by the same group at
around 12 noon at Khagrachhari town where another UPDF activist was killed
and four passersby wounded.
“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 after the first attack took
place.
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.
But UPDF later alleged that the PCJSS-reform activists staged the second
attack as well while they rallied at the Perachhara area of the town to stage
a protest march.
Police and residents at the neighbourhood said all the seven slain people
belonged to major Chakma community while six of them were UPDF leaders and
activists including Tapan Chakma, the UPDF-backed student group Pahari
Chhatra Parishad’s (PCP) acting district unit president.
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/1730 hrs