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Chittagong Hill Tracts conflict

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Insurgency in the Chittagong Hill Tracts
Part of the Cold War and Terrorism in Bangladesh

Shanti Bahini insurgents, photographed on 5 May 1994.
DateFirst phase:
c. 1977 – 2 December 1997 (20 years)
Second phase:
2022–present
Location
Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh
Result

Ongoing

Belligerents

First phase (1977–1997):

First phase (1977-1997):

Second phase (2022–present):

PCJSS-MN Larma
UPDF-D

Mog Party (MNP)

Second phase (2022–present):
PCJSS

UPDF

Second phase (2022–present):

Kuki-Chin National Front
Commanders and leaders
First phase (1977-1997)
Second phase (2022–present)

Second phase (2022–present):
Shantu Larma

Prasit Bikash Khisa
Rabi Chakma

First phase (1977–1997):

Second phase (2022–present):

Units involved

First phase (1977–1997):

Paramilitary Forces:Law Enforcement:

Second phase (2022–present):
 Bangladesh Army

Paramilitary Forces:

First phase (1977–1997):

Second phase (2022–present):

Kuki-Chin National Army
Strength
  • 115,000–150,000[1]

First phase (1977–1997):

Second phase (2022–present):
Kuki-Chin National Army 2,000[5]

Casualties and losses
First phase: 6,000+ combatants killed (partial list)[6]

3,500–25,000 civilians
(Bengali settlers and tribal villagers)[2]
80,000 civilians displaced[7]

Total 30,000 Violent Deaths[7]

400+ conflict-related deaths from disease in Bangladesh (June-Aug 1995 only)[8]
7,000+ non-violent deaths among refugees in India ( 14–21 May 1990 only)[8]

The insurgency in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (Bengali: পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রামে বিদ্রোহ), also known as the Chittagong Hill Tracts conflict (Bengali: পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রাম যুদ্ধ), refers to a political and armed conflict that occurred in Bangladesh in two phases:

The actions then carried out by the Armed Forces and the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti groups resulted in casualties on both sides.[12] There were also reports of mass rapes by the paramilitary Bangladesh Ansars, though these have been disputed.[13] According to Amnesty International as of June 2013 the Bangladeshi government made "praiseworthy progress" in implementing the terms of the peace accord and in addressing the Jumma people's concerns over the return of their land. Amnesty estimate that there are currently only 900 internally displaced Jumma families.[14][15]

Background

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The origin of the conflict in the Chittagong Hill Tracts dates back to the British rule. The British, at the end of the 19th century, reorganized the CHT. This resulted in the recognition of three tribal chiefs (rajas) in 1860, (b) enactment of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Frontier Police Regulations in 1881, authorizing a police force from among the hill peoples, and (c) enactment of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regulations in 1900, giving them rights and autonomy.

When Bangladesh was the eastern wing of Pakistan, widespread resentment occurred over the displacement of as many as 100,000 of the native peoples due to the construction of the Kaptai Dam in 1962. The displaced did not receive compensation from the government and many thousands fled to India.

After the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, representatives of the Chittagong Hill Tracts who was the Chakma politician Manabendra Narayan Larma sought autonomy and recognition of the rights of the peoples of the region. Larma and other Hill Tracts representatives protested the draft of the Constitution of Bangladesh. It did not recognise the ethnic identity and culture of the non-Bengali peoples of Bangladesh. The government policy recognised only the Bengali culture and the Bengali language, and designated all citizens of Bangladesh as Bengalis. In talks with a Chittagong Hill Tracts delegation led by Manabendra Narayan Larma, the country's founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman expressed that the ethnic groups of the Hill Tracts as citizen of Bangladesh should have the Bengali identity which later was proven to be a false allegation.[16][17][18]

The migrated hill Jummas were given with special treatment, as they were the minority after independence in 1971.[19] The rebellion by the Jumma began after the 1971 independence of Bangladesh.[20]

Insurgency

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M. N. Larma and others founded the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS) as a united political organisation of all native peoples and tribes in 1973. The armed wing of the PCJSS, the Shanti Bahini was organised to resist government policies. The crisis aggravated during the emergency rule of Sheikh Mujib, and the successive military regimes that followed after his assassination in 1975. In 1977, the Shanti Bahini launched their first attack on a Bangladesh Army convoy.[21][17][22] It is alleged that the Indian government helped the Shanti Bahini set up bases across the border from Bangladesh.[23]

The Shanti Bahini divided its area of operations into zones and raised forces from the native people, who were formally trained. The Shanti Bahini led attacks on Bengali Police and Soldiers, government offices, personnel and the other Bengalis in the region. The group also attacked any native believed to be opposing it and supporting the government.[24] According to government sources between 1980 and 1991, 1,180 people were killed by the Shanti Bahini, and 582 were kidnapped.[23][25]

400 Chakmas including Anupam Chakma absconded to India to evade the Bangladesh Army in 1989.[26] The Chakmas being the majority represented all the people of Chittagong Hill Tracts, so naturally Chakmas dominated the Shanti Bahini.[27]

G. M. Mushfiqur Rahman, a lieutenant in the Bangladesh Army posted in 1 Field Artillery Regiment of Bangladesh Army in Chittagong Hill Tracts. On 8 September 1989, he led a 17-member team of Bangladesh Army soldiers and attacked a Shanti Bahini camp. Lieutenant Rahman was injured during the clash and died on that day at 8:15 am. He was posthumously awarded with the Bir Uttom award.[28]

On 11 September 1996 the Chakma Shanti Bahini rebels reportedly abducted and killed 28 to 30 Bengali woodcutters.[29]

Detention

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People living in the Hill Tracts area were often detained and tortured in custody on suspicion of being members of the Shanti Bahini or helping them. There were numerous check posts on highways and ferries in Chittagong Hill Tracts.[30]

People who are detained on suspicion are subjected to severe beating, electrocution, water boarding, hanging upside down, shoving burning cigarettes on bodies etc. Prisoners are detained in pits and trenches. The captives are then taken out for interrogation once at a time.

Recent developments

[edit]

2018 ambush

[edit]

21 years after the peace treaty on 5 May 2018 unidentified gunmen ambushed and assassinated 5 people in Rangamati district, including UPDF leader Tapan Jyoti Chakma. It is suspected the attack was caused by internal conflicts between rival Chakma factions. This is the deadliest such incident involving the indigenous tribal Chakma people since the signing of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord in 1997.[31][32]

2022 travel ban

[edit]

Amidst intelligence reports of insurgency buildup in the region, on 20 October 2022, Bangladesh authorities issue travel ban in Bandarban district amidst security concerns in the region.[33]

An ethnic insurgency group, the Kuki-Chin National Front, has gained a foothold in the region. RAB has launched an anti-insurgency campaign, that led to 250 refugees fleeing over the border into Mizoram (India). Allegedly, 2000 more civilians are hiding in the wilderness. RAB told the media that 10 militants belonging to the Kuki Chin Nation Front had been arrested in the operation in the CHT. Ten guns, 50 rounds of bullets, 62 cases, six bombs, two cartridge belts, and a locally made pistol along with other equipment and jihadi literature were also seized during the operation, along with 1 militant killed.[34][35]

Government reaction

[edit]
A map of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

At the outbreak of the insurgency, the government of Bangladesh deployed the army to begin counter-insurgency operations. The then-president Ziaur Rahman created a Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board under an army general to address the socio-economic needs of the region, but the entity proved unpopular and became a source of antagonism and mistrust amongst the native people against the government. The government failed to address the long-standing issue of the displacement of people, numbering an estimated 100,000 caused by the construction of the Kaptai Dam in 1962.[36] Displaced people did not receive compensation and more than 40,000 Chakma people had fled to India.[36] In the 1980s, the government began settling Bengalis in the region, causing the eviction of many natives and a significant alteration of demographics. Having constituted only 11.6% of the regional population in 1974, the number of Bengalis grew by 1991 to constitute 48.5% of the regional population.

In 1989, the government of then-president Hossain Mohammad Ershad passed the District Council Act created three tiers of local government councils to devolve powers and responsibilities to the representatives of the native peoples, but the councils were rejected and opposed by the PCJSS.[10]

Peace accord

[edit]
Main article: Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord

Peace negotiations were initiated after the restoration of democracy in Bangladesh in 1991, but little progress was made with the government of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, the widow of Ziaur Rahman and her Bangladesh Nationalist Party.[37] Fresh rounds of talks began in 1996 with the newly elected prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed of the Awami League, the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.[37] The peace accord was finalised and formally signed on 2 December 1997.[11]

The agreement recognised the special status of the hill residents.[10] Chakma rebels were still in the Chittagong Hill Tracts as of 2002.[38]

Chakmas also live in India's Tripura State where a Insurgency in Tripura lasted between 1989 and 2024.[39]

Genocide

[edit]

The persecution of the indigenous tribes of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, including the Chakma, Marma, Tripura and others, who are mainly Buddhists, has been described as genocidal.[40] There are also accusations of Chakmas being forced to leave their religion, many of them children who have been abducted for this purpose. The government encouraged and sponsored massive settlement of Bangladeshis in the region changed the indigenous population's demographics from 98 percent in 1971 to fifty percent by 2000. During this conflict, which officially ended in 1997, and during the subsequent period, a large number of human rights violations against the indigenous peoples have been reported, with violence against indigenous women being particularly extreme.[41]

Second phase

[edit]

The secessionist Kuki-Chin National Front still fights for the establishment of a separate autonomous or independent state for Jumma people, using guerilla methods.[citation needed]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Dowlah, Caf (2013). "Jumma insurgency in Chittagong Hills Tracts: how serious is the threat to Bangladesh's national integration and what can be done?". Small Wars & Insurgencies. 24 (5): 775, 788–789. doi:10.1080/09592318.2013.866419. S2CID 144593890.
  2. ^ a b c Fortna, Virginia Page (2008). Does Peacekeeping Work?: Shaping Belligerents' Choices after Civil War. Princeton University Press. pp. 53–. ISBN 978-1-4008-3773-1.
  3. ^ a b c d Talukdar, S. P. (1988). The Chakmas, life and struggle. Delhi: Gian Pub. House. p. 52. ISBN 81-212-0212-4.
  4. ^ "Shanti Bahini | IPCS". www.ipcs.org. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  5. ^ "Evolution of Kuki Chin National Front as Separatist Group and Impact on National and Region Security" (PDF). Bangladesh Institute Of Peace And Security Studies. 6 August 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 June 2024. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
  6. ^ "Bangladesh/Chakmas (1972-present)", University of Central Arkansas, archived from the original on 10 August 2024
  7. ^ a b The fragility of peace in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh
  8. ^ a b "Chronology for Chittagong Hill Tribes in Bangladesh", refworld.org, 2004, archived from the original on 18 November 2019
  9. ^
  10. ^ a b c Mohsin, Amena (2012). "Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord, 1997". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Archived from the original on 7 September 2024.
  11. ^ a b "Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs". Archived from the original on 8 July 2008.
  12. ^ Begovich, Milica (2007). "Bangladesh (1972–1997)". In DeRouen, Karl R. Jr; Heo, Uk (eds.). Civil Wars of the World: Major Conflicts since World War II. Vol. I. ABC-CLIO. pp. 165–166. ISBN 978-1-85109-919-1.
  13. ^ Jonassohn, Kurt; Björnson, Karin Solveig (1998). Genocide and Gross Human Rights Violations: In Comparative Perspective. Transaction. p. 258. ISBN 1560003146.
  14. ^ "Bangladesh: Indigenous Peoples engulfed in Chittagong Hill Tracts land conflict". Amnesty International. 12 June 2013.[dead link]
  15. ^ Erueti, Andrew (13 June 2013). "Amnesty criticises Bangladeshi government's failure to address indigenous land rights". ABC News. Archived from the original on 14 October 2023.
  16. ^ Singh, Nagendra K. (2003). Encyclopaedia of Bangladesh. Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd. pp. 222–223. ISBN 81-261-1390-1.
  17. ^ a b Bushra Hasina Chowdhury (2002). Building Lasting Peace: Issues of the Implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord. University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Archived from the original on 1 September 2006.
  18. ^ Shelley, Mizanur Rahman (1992). The Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh: The untold story. Centre for Development Research, Bangladesh. p. 129. OCLC 29315603.
  19. ^ Mohaiemen, Naeem (15 November 2012). "In Bangladesh, Stranded on the Borders of Two Bengals". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 19 October 2023.
  20. ^ Crossette, Barbara (8 July 1989). "Khagrachari Journal; Seeking Happiness High in the Hills". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 9 October 2023.
  21. ^ Hazarika, Sanjoy (11 June 1989). "Bangladeshi Insurgents Say India Is Supporting Them". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 26 October 2014.
  22. ^ Nagendra K. Singh (2003). Encyclopaedia of Bangladesh. Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd. p. 229. ISBN 81-261-1390-1.
  23. ^ a b Kabir, A. (January 2005). "Bangladesh: A Critical Review of the Chittagong Hill Tract (CHT) Peace Accord". Working Paper No 2. The Role of Parliaments in Conflict & Post Conflict in Asia. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  24. ^ Kader, Rozina (2012). "Shanti Bahini". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
  25. ^ "Human rights in the Chittagong Hill Tracts". Amnesty International. February 2000. Archived from the original on 31 October 2004.
  26. ^ Hazarika, Sanjoy (8 July 1989). "Under Cover of Darkness, 400 Flee to Haven in India". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 9 October 2023.
  27. ^ Crossette, Barbara (26 June 1989). "Bangladesh Tries to Dampen Ethnic Insurgency With Ballots". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 9 October 2023.
  28. ^ Major General (Retired) Syed Muhammad Ibrahim " Chittagong Hill Tract Peace Process and Situation Analysis (Bengali Book)
  29. ^ "Refworld | Human Rights Situation".
  30. ^ Bangladesh Unlawful Killings And Torture In The Chittagong Hill Tracts. United Kingdom: Amnesty International. 1986. pp. 26–30. ISBN 0-86210-110-7.
  31. ^ Chakma, Anvil; Barua, Sanjoy Kumar; Dewan, Saikat (5 May 2018). "Gun attack kills 5 in Rangamati". The Daily Star. Archived from the original on 7 September 2024.
  32. ^ "Shooting at Naniarchar: 'Attackers came in 2 groups; target was Tapan'". The Daily Star. 6 May 2018. Archived from the original on 9 October 2023.
  33. ^ "Bangladesh: Authorities issue travel advisory in parts of Bandarban District, Chittagong Division, as of Oct. 20". Archived from the original on 9 October 2023.
  34. ^ Bhattacharyya, Rajeev (22 November 2022). "Kuki-Chin Refugees from Bangladesh Take Shelter in Mizoram". The Diplomat. Archived from the original on 28 May 2024.
  35. ^ "Kuki-Chin refugees from Bangladesh continue to pour into Mizoram to flee violence". Northeast Now. 27 November 2022. Archived from the original on 10 December 2023.
  36. ^ a b "The construction of the Kaptai dam uproots the indigenous population (1957–1963)". Archived from the original on 4 February 2012. Retrieved 1 February 2007.
  37. ^ a b Majumder, Shantanu (2012). "Parbatya Chattagram Jana-Samhati Samiti". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Archived from the original on 21 December 2023.
  38. ^ Samrat (21 August 2012). "The "Imaginary Line" that Divides India and Bangladesh". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 19 June 2024.
  39. ^ Hazarika, Sanjoy (13 August 1988). "India and Tribal Guerrillas Agree to Halt 8-Year Fight". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 11 May 2024.
  40. ^
    • Gray, Richard A. (1994). "Genocide in the Chittagong Hill tracts of Bangladesh". Reference Services Review. 22 (4): 59–79. doi:10.1108/eb049231.
    • O'Brien, Sharon (2004). "The Chittagong Hill Tracts". In Shelton, Dinah (ed.). Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity. Macmillan Library Reference. pp. 176–177.
    • Mey, Wolfgang, ed. (1984). Genocide in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh. Copenhagen: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs.
    • Moshin, A. (2003). The Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh: On the Difficult Road to Peace. Boulder, Col.: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
    • Roy, Rajkumari (2000). Land Rights of the Indigenous Peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh. Copenhagen: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs.
  41. ^ Chakma, Kabita; Hill, Glen (2013). "Indigenous Women and Culture in the Colonized Chittagong Hills Tracts of Bangladesh". In Visweswaran, Kamala (ed.). Everyday Occupations: Experiencing Militarism in South Asia and the Middle East. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 132–157. ISBN 978-0812244878.
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