Forty-three academics, political and socio-cultural activists, and lawyers on Tuesday called on the government to launch an independent inquiry into the allegation of rights abuse and excesses with ordinary hill people during ongoing joint forces鈥� drives against the ethnic armed group Kuki-Chin National Front in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
In a joint statement, they condemned indiscriminate arrests, especially arrests of women and children, in the name of containing 鈥榯errorism鈥�.
鈥榃e want to say clearly that arrest of the wife and children of an accused聽 KNF member for his crimes or keeping villagers of his entire village detained without food throughout the day in the sun is a torture聽 and a serious violation of human rights,鈥� said the statement.聽
The signatories to the statement demanded that those members of the law enforcement agencies and security forces involved in physical and mental torture of Bawm community people should be brought to justice.
They also called on the governent to halt the tactics of delivering collective punishment to Bawm community and to release those who were arrested indiscriminately.
They, however, also called for carrying out a fair and acceptable investigation to identify the suspects who were directly or indirectly involved in bank robberies in Ruma and Thanchi on April 2 and 3.
National Human Rights Commission former members Banchita Chakma, Nirupa Chakma, and Meghna Guhathakurta, photographer Shahidul Alam, Dhaka University teacher Gitiara Nasreen, Parbatya Chattogram Nagarik Committee president Goutam Dewan and adviser to the Chakma Circle chief Rani Yan Yan, among others, signed the statement.
The statement came two days after the Inter Services Public Relations said on Sunday that two KNF members, who were involved in the recent bank looting in Thanchi upazila, were killed in remote Baklaipara area of Ruma upazila in Bandarban.
It was the second such incident after the ISPR on April 22 said that another army operation left one member of the KNF killed in the remote Moonlai Para area of Ruma upazila.
The latest killings came 10 days after at least one army corporal was killed and two others, including a junior commissioned officer, were severely injured in an ambush, allegedly carried out by the KNF in Bandarban on April 19.
On April 2, the KNF launched an attack to loot Tk 1.5 crore from the vault of the state-owned Sonali Bank鈥檚 Ruma upazila branch and abducted the branch manager Nezam Uddin.
They also looted at least 14 firearms and over 400 bullets, beating members of law enforcement agencies.
On April 3, the KNF also looted Tk 17 lakh in cash from the Sonali Bank and Krishi Bank branches in Thanchi upazila.
The abducted Sonali Bank manager was rescued on April 4 through negotiation by the Rapid Action Battalion.
Police officials in Bandarban said that a total of nine cases were filed with Ruma and Thanchi police stations, following robberies, arms looting, and abduction on April 2 and 3.
Seventy-eight people were arrested in this connection, they added.
