The Indigenous Community Grant 2024 winner photographer Denim Chakma on Monday in a photographic presentation depicted state repression of the people of Bawm community and other national minorities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
The photographic presentation titled ‘Living under militarisation’ has been organised at DrikPath Bhobon in the capital and is a part of ongoing Bangladesh Press Photo Exhibition 2025.
The presentation comprises photographs, photo-collages and slide-show presentation, depicting the plight of the families belonging to Bawm national minority now living in the refugee camps in the state of Mizoram in neighbouring India. They have fled to India, facing torture and false cases and having their community members murdered as a result of military operations.
The event contained images of applications showing that Bawm people currently needed special permission from the army check-post to move about even in the Bandarban district where their community resided. It also shows photographs of an under-construction road near the Bangladesh-India border to build which a Tripura village had allegedly been completely evicted by the military.
Journalist and head of research and public campaign at Drik Picture Library Saydia Gulrukh moderated the event while managing director of Drik Shahidul Alam spoke on the presentation.
‘The indigenous grant was included to ensure the participation of indigenous people at the Bangladesh Press Photo Contest. The grant encourages and supports marginalised groups’ participation in photojournalism,’ said Saydia Gulrukh demanding the release of the Bawm women and children arrested in Bandarban in the joint operation launched after the bank robbery in the district in April 2024.
Shahidul Alam said that Denim in his work adopted a classic documentary approach and combined it with photo-collage and other techniques to illustrate a truthful picture of the present day Chittagong Hill Tracts and the life of its people.
‘We need to fight against all discrimination wherever it will be happening to build a discrimination-free country. We have to address every repression even it happens in Palestine which is far away from Bangladesh,’ said Shahidul Alam.
The Bangladesh Press Photo Exhibition 2025 will remain open to the public till April 30.
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