Amnesty calls for full investigation

Amnesty International has called for a full investigation into the murder of indigenous human rights defender Mithun Chakma, who was gunned down on Wednesday by unidentified miscreants in Khagracchari.

In a statement released yesterday, the London-based human rights advocacy group urged the Bangladesh authorities "to hold a rigorous investigation, without delay... and ensure that any persons against whom credible evidence exists are prosecuted in accordance with international standards of due process."

Mithun was an indigenous rights campaigner who dedicated himself to fighting for the Jumma, a collective term for the indigenous peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts region, after attending Notre Dame College and graduating from Dhaka University with a degree in linguistics.

Till the end, he remained a central organiser of the United People's Democratic Front (UPDF), the CHT-based political party that was formed in the wake of the CHT Peace Accords with a sceptical view of the deal signed between the government and the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti, or PCJSS.

PCJSS is the more longstanding CHT-based political party whose armed wing, the Shanti Bahini, fought a 25-year insurgency against the Bangladeshi state.

The 38-year-old Mithun was also formerly president of the Pahari Chhatra Parishad (Hill Students Council), or PCP, and general secretary of the Democratic Youth Forum.

Local sources said Mithun was returning home at Aparna Chowdhury Para after a scheduled court appearance in a case filed against him under the controversial Section 57 of the ICT Act on Wednesday, when a group of armed assailants abducted him from Aparna Chowdhury Para around 12:30pm.

They then took him to the Sluice Gate area, where they shot him in the head and the abdomen. He died later.