The National Human Rights Commission has asked the home ministry to initiate an inquiry into the allegations of human rights abuses taken place during the joint force鈥檚 drives against ethnic armed group Kuki-Chin National Front in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
A NHRC bench presided over by its chairman Kamal Uddin Ahmed passed the order on May 2 asking senior secretary of public security division at the home ministry to submit their 鈥榓ctual鈥� report to the commission by June 4.
Ain O Salish Kendra executive director Faruq Faisel, also the convenor of Human Rights Forum Bangladesh, brought the issue to the cognisance of the commission detailing reports of manhunts, shooting incidents and indiscriminate arrests. They alleged that 111 people, including four children, were either arrested or detained in two weeks started from April 7.
Seven Human Rights Forum members on April 29 called on the government to launch independent inquiry into the allegations of harassing ordinary people during the joint force鈥檚 drives against the KNF.聽 A forum delegation also met the NHRC leadership the following day.
Faruq Faisel could not be reached for comment.聽聽
The NHRC chairman told 抖阴精品 that they were keeping their eyes on the CHT. He said that they wanted peace to prevail in the region.
In its order, the NHRC bench chair said that the KNF was involved in bank robbery, arms looting and killing a member of Armed Forces Division.
The order further read that ordinary people fled their village fearing arrest during the joint drive launched to counter violent activities.聽聽聽
It said that the Human Rights Forum Bangladesh informed them that many males were still staying in jungle. The order asked the home ministry to inquire those allegations 鈥榠mpartially鈥�.聽聽
The forum in their April 29 statement said that apart from the KNF and those linked to them, the allegations surfaced over mass arrest and harassment of people from the Bawm and other communities. It read that some 111 people, including four children, were arrested or detained between April 7 and April 22.
The families said that only five of them were related to the KNF. Thirteen Tripura and five Marma, including a pregnant woman, were released after their detention, it added.
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 the 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.
The Bandarban police said that a total of 15 cases were filed with the Ruma and Thanchi police, following the robberies, arms looting, and abduction on April 2 and 3, and subsequent incidents.
Some 84 people鈥�60 males and 24 females鈥� were arrested in this connection in a month, said Bandarban district additional superintendent of police (administration and finance) Hossain Md Raihan Kazemy.
He said that a total eight people were killed between the first week of April and first week of May.
Of the killed, he told 抖阴精品 that seven ethnic minority people were allegedly connected to the KNF and the rest one was an army man.
