A total of 155 citizens, including rights activists, lawyers and academics, in a statement on Friday, demanded judicial probe into the recent death of three men belonging to the Bawm national minority in jail custody.
They also demanded the release of all innocent Bawm people living in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
All the three men died while in custody at the Chattogram Central Jail鈥擵an Lal Rual Bawm, 35, died on July 17, Lal Sangmoy Bawm, 55, died on May 31, and Lal Tleng Kim Bawm, 29, died on May 15, according to the statement jointly shared by Rani Yan Yan, adviser to the Chakma Circle chief, and journalist and researcher Saydia Gulrukh.
The statement also alleged that all of them died in jail custody without treatment.
The statement also alleged that the deaths proved the state鈥檚 failure to provide timely and proper treatment in custody.
They also placed a five-charter of demand, including ensuring accountability of those liable for the custodial death of the three Bawm men and bringing them to through a judicial probe; withdrawing all the false cases against innocent Bawm people immediately; compensating and rehabilitating the affected people through state initiatives; and ensuring free movement of the national minority people, including the Bawms, in the CHT by stopping the state surveillance and control.
Their other demands include bringing all perpetrators involved directly or indirectly in the past year鈥檚 bank robbery in the CHT, including Kuki-Chin National Front members, to justice; and ending ethnic cleansing centring the KNF issue.
They also demanded ensuring equal rights, dignity, security and justice for the national minority people in the CHT and plainsland.
The signatories to the statement included economist and academic Anu Muhammad, former caretaker government adviser and rights activist Sultana Kamal, rights group Ain O Salish Kendra chairperson and Supreme Court lawyer ZI Khan Panna, Nijera Kori coordinator Khushi Kabir, Transparency International Bangladesh executive director Iftekharuzzaman, Chakma Circle chief Raja Debashish Roy, photographer-journalist Shahidul Alam, Dhaka University sociology professor Samina Lutfa, and Bangladesh Adivasi Forum general secretary Sanjeeb Drong