Of arms, ammo, and abduction

Firearms, including sophisticated ones, in the hills are not only for the extremists' “ideals”, they are now a means for their financial solvency. 

Members of four armed groups active in the three hill districts – Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban – are extorting rampantly from traders and contractors of different development projects.

They do not hesitate to abduct people to realise toll, amounting to several hundred crores of taka annually, said local traders and intelligence sources.

The armed groups often lock in fierce clashes over establishing supremacy in different areas of the Chattogram Hill Tracts (CHT), they added.

The groups smuggle in arms from insurgents active in India's seven sisters and Myanmar through the largely unguarded hilly borders with Mizoram and Chin state of Myanmar. The firearms are sometimes sold to extremists operating outside the hills to make money, said law enforcers.

“We were 15 in the group tasked with dissuading intrusion in a specific area and to issue threats or abduct people unwilling to pay toll,” SK Chakma (not his real name) told The Daily Star in Rangamati on December 3. He got an AK-47 assault rifle just after a month of training.

He claimed that in 2014, he joined the “armed wing” of regional political group United People's Democratic Front (UPDF). His group was just one of four allegedly patronised by regional political groups.

The youth, now 23, quit the group in 2016.

According to officials in the law enforcement and intelligence agencies, several hundred armed youths working for Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti (PCJSS), PCJSS (reformists), UPDF (main) and UPDF (democratic) roam the rugged hills.

SK Chakma said the groups have weapons like machine guns, self-loading rifles, AK-47s, AK-22s, AK-56s and even rocket propelled grenades.

“We had all sorts of firearms that Bangladesh army got at its disposal and no dearth of bullets either,” he said.

None could, however, estimate the number of illegal firearms the groups have in their arsenal.

Rangamati Awami League president and law maker-elect Dipankar Talukder said, “…..What I can say is that the illegal firearms is enough to deteriorate law and order, terrorise innocent people and even enough to run a parallel government in CHT area.”

At least 119 firearms including machines guns, and AK-47 and 3,200 bullets were recovered from CHT between January and November this year, according to officials of a security force and law enforcement agencies.

On December 22, members of Bangladesh Army arrested three people, including suspected kingpin of an arms-trading group Biswajoti Chakma alias Baganbabu Kinkar in Rangamati, and recovered a heavy machine gun and a carbine from their possession.  On December 27, three suspected PCJSS members were arrested in Rangamati with an AK-22 and three bullets.

On Tuesday, the army and police detained two suspected UPDF members with a US-made M4A1 rifle and bullets in Guimara upazila of Khagrachhari.

According to Chittagong Range of Police, police alone seized 263 firearms including AK-47s, AK-22s, and M-16s, between 2014 and November this year from the three districts.

The firearms are coming through the border in Habiganj too, said an intelligence official requesting anonymity.

In 2013, Indian police seized 31 AK-47 rifles, an automatic rifle, a light machine gun and some ammunition in Mizoram when those were being smuggled into Bangladesh from Myanmar via India.

Three indeginous people of the CHT were arrested.

In October 2015, five AK-47s, three AK-56s and 12 magazines were seized in Mizoram, bordering the CHT. Indian police then said those were destined for Bangladesh's CHT.

Rangamati Superintendent of Police Alomgir Kabir said every month they recover firearms.

The groups fighting to establish supremacy puts the lives of around seven lakh people in danger. The CHT consists of 13,189sqkm and is home to 11 indigenous communities.

Around 600 people, including political leaders and public representatives, were killed even after signing of the CHT Peace Accord in 1997, according to different political organisations in the CHT.

Until November this year 67 -- 53 from ethnic minority groups and 14 Bangalees – have been killed. At least 78 others were abducted, according to law enforcement agencies.

Senior Vice-President of PCJSS and 10th parliament lawmaker of Rangamati Ushatan Talukder told The Daily Star that sincere effort and bringing all stakeholders to account were needed to stop the use of firearms and that it would not be possible to recover all firearms through deployment of force or conducting drives.

“Why the armed groups exist? Why they have become like this? There is a long story,” he said.

He, however, said drives to recover firearms could go on making sure the innocent was not harassed.

Michael Chakma, spokesperson for the UPDF, claimed that they have no arms wing and that the allegations were false.

A year after the signing of the peace accord, a group of ethnic minority people, led by Prosid Bikash Khisa, formed the UPDF opposing the accord.

The party split and UPDF (democratic), led by Tapan Jyoti Chakma (alias Borma and Jalwa) was formed on November 15, 2017.

The PCJSS also saw a split as some left the organisation in 2007 and formed PCJSS (reformists), led by Sudha Sindho Khisa.