Ethnic Chakma houses and shops torched in Bangladesh

By Admin 20 Sep 2024

DMG Newsroom
20 September 2024, Sittwe

More than 100 houses and shops of people belonging to the indigenous Chakma community were burnt down in Bangladesh’s Khagrachari district on Thursday.

A New Delhi-based rights body claimed the large-scale arson attack by illegal settlers took place in the Chittagong Hill Tracts at around 5 p.m. on Thursday.

“Following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government, lawlessness prevailed in the country. Chief Advisor Mohammed Yunus authorised the Bangladesh Army with magisterial power on September 17 but the same Bangladesh Army supported the burning down of the Chakma shops and houses at Dighinala Sadar today,” Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) Director Suhas Chakma said in a statement.

He alleged that Bangladesh Army personnel stationed nearby at the Dighinala Cantonment did not intervene and instead provided support to the illegal Muslim settlers carrying out the arson.

Some students and local residents held protests in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka and Chittagong to denounce the arson attack.

A person familiar with the situation in Bangladesh said that violence against the tribes is frequent in Bangladesh, and that government action to prevent it is often ineffective or nonexistent.

“In Bangladesh, not only the Chakma ethnic group, but also the Hindus have often been oppressed and terrorised by extremists. During Sheikh Hasina’s reign, violence against ethnic groups also occurred. Why does the Bangladeshi interim government not stop the violence against ethnic minorities?” the person added.

Suhas Chakma said the burning down of shops and houses belonging to the Chakma community and the lack of security from the Yunus government would be brought before the United Nations human rights mechanisms.

The Buddhist Chakmas primarily live in the Chittagong Hills Tracts of southeast Bangladesh, with smaller populations in Myanmar’s Chin and Arakan states, and in some states of northeast India.