PCJSS counts 240 incidents of human rights violation in CHT

CHT DESK:

The overall human rights situation in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) has become very fragile and worrisome due to non-implementation of Chittagong Hill Tracts peace accord signed between the government and the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS) in 1997.

Repression by security and law enforcement agencies, arrests, imprisonments, murders, disappearances, involvement in false cases, land grabbing, evictions from homelands, government-sponsored expansion of settler cluster villages, infiltration, marginalization of Jummas, communal attacks, cultural aggression, and violence against women has become a daily occurrence in CHT. 

The picture emerged in PCJSS’ annual human rights report released on January 1. 

It counts 240 incidents of human rights violation perpetrated by security forces and law enforcement agencies, army-backed armed terrorist groups, communal and fundamentalist groups, Muslim Bengali settlers and land grabbers, 1,687 people were victims of rights violations, 64 villages once or more raids were carried out by the army while 84 houses and their family members were searched by the army.  

The report also reads, 19 people were killed, 17 people were beaten, 21 people were kidnapped, 22 people were detained, 6 people were handed over to the police after being detained, around 1,000 people of 195 Bawm and Marma families were evicted from their villages, while the residents of 25 villages were harassed and threatened with eviction in 2023. 

24 incidents were committed by communal and fundamentalist groups, Muslim Bengali settlers and land grabbers, while 19 families and 210 Jummas were victims of human rights violations. Among them, 6 people were killed and 18 houses were set on fire, says the report. 

24 incidents of violence also occurred against Jumma women and children by state and non-state actors while 25 women were victims of human rights violations. Among them, one was killed, 12 women and children were raped, 7 were attempted to be raped and 2 women and children were abducted and attempted to be trafficked.

 Although 26 years have passed since the CHT accord was signed to solve the Chittagong Hill Tracts problem through political and peaceful way, the accord has not been properly implemented. 

The Awami League government, which signed the Chittagong Hill Tracts Agreement, has been in power for 15 years since 2009 but even in this long time, the government has not come forward to implement the basic issues of the accord and has not taken any effective steps to implement the agreement rather it continues to implement anti-accord activities, also says the report signed by Sajib Chakma, associate information and publicity secretary at the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS).