Police crush peaceful protest over rape of Marma girl in Khagrachhari

Khagrachhari Correspondent:

In a stunning act of repression, police in Khagrachhari forcibly disrupted a peaceful student demonstration demanding justice for the rape of a young Marma girl—igniting fury across Indigenous communities and exposing the state’s deepening culture of impunity.

The protest, spearheaded by Khagrachhari Sacheton Chhatrasamaj (Conscious Student Society), was launched from the Yongdo Buddhist Monastery with clear intent: to condemn the brutal sexual violence inflicted on the Marma girl and to demand swift arrest of the accused, Md. Fahim.

But as the protest reached Pankhaiya Para intersection, it was met with an iron wall of resistance—an empty police truck barricaded the road, halting both the rally and local traffic.

“This was no routine action. It was a forceful suppression of justice, silencing of voices, and erasure of the marginalized.”

“We were marching peacefully. There was no threat—only truth,” said Kabita Chakma, a protest leader.

“The police didn’t stop us for safety. They stopped us because we were exposing the state’s failure. They stood not for law and order—but for silence and suppression.”

When contacted, Khagrachhari Sadar Police Station’s Officer-in-Charge Md. Abdul Baten Mridha stated that the rally was stopped due to “security concerns.”

Protesters, however, rejected the explanation, describing the move as a deliberate obstruction of their constitutional right to peaceful assembly.

The First Information Report filed on April 18 lays out horrifying details: between March 25 and April 3, the accused repeatedly raped the young woman.

On April 17, when she resisted, he brutally assaulted her. Her wounds sent her to Kaukhali Upazila Health Complex. But the state’s response? Delay, denial, and the disruption of protest, said the protesters.

“Instead of arresting a rapist, they’re policing our pain,” said Champa Marma, another protester.

“We are Indigenous, and we are citizens of this country. We have rights. Why is the law protecting predators and punishing protestors?”

Ukyanu Marma, General Secretary of the Marma Students’ Council in Khagrachhari, didn’t mince words:

“This government has normalized the betrayal of Indigenous women. They wouldn’t let us protest in Rangamati. Now they’ve shut us down here. This isn’t about law and order. This is about deliberate silencing, systematic neglect, and entrenched injustice.”

He added, “One rape after another—and justice remains a mirage. This is a state that shields perpetrators and tramples the voices of the violated. The violence against Indigenous women is not merely a crime—it is a brutal stain on the nation’s conscience. And every day of silence from those in power deepens the moral decay.”

Speakers at the rally called for the immediate arrest of Md. Fahim, warning that continued inaction would deepen the crisis of trust between the state and the Indigenous peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.