Wadud, Jamaat linked with unrest

Former BNP lawmaker Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan and Jamaat-e-Islami had instigated the recent unrest in the hill districts with assistance from a Pakistani intelligence agency, a parliamentary body alleged yesterday.
The House standing committee on the Chittagong hill tracts affairs ministry made the accusation, citing what they gathered during their March 5-7 visit to Rangamati and Khagrachhari.
Mohammad Shah Alam, chief of the committee and also of the team that visited the violence-ravaged hills areas, said, “They [Jamaat-Shibir and Wadud Bhuiyan] had plotted to have the government in a tight corner.”
He was briefing the media after a meeting of the committee at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban yesterday afternoon.
“We will soon meet the prime minister and submit our report suggesting measures to prevent recurrence of such incidents,” he added.
The committee members stressed the need for having efficient officials posted to the CHT.
They also proposed that the government increase the amount of damages for the victims of arsons and rioting that rattled the hills areas between February 19 and 23.
The lawmakers alleged that Jamaat and Islami Chhatra Shibir activists, holed up in the hill tracts to escape police dragnet following the violence in Rajshahi and Chittagong universities, had incited hatred and fighting between the Bangalee settlers and indigenous community.
Committee member Captain (retd) Ghyas Uddin Ahmed said Jamaat-Shibir cadres teamed up with BNP leader Wadud Bhuiyan's men had carried out the arson attacks.
“They were aided and abetted by Pakistani intelligence agency ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence),” he added.
The parliamentary committee also questioned the role of some NGOs working in the CHT areas.
ABM Fazle Karim Chowdhury, a member of the committee, said they have discussed the activities of some NGOs whose role was not clear enough.
The local administration has already been asked to examine the NGO activities.
Meanwhile, Wadud Bhuiyan, now on the run to avoid arrest, has rejected the accusation.
Talking to The Daily Star via phone, he said the parliamentary committee has accused him to hide the government's failure to maintain law and order in CHT areas.
"How come I was involved in the incidents when I have been denied entry to my constituency (Khagrachhari) for last four years?" he asked.
About the allegations, Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed told The Daily Star last night that “blaming Jamaat is nothing but a government strategy to cover up the real matter”.
"This government is suffering from a Jamaat-Shibir mania," he added.
“Our stance is clear. We want safety of both the hills people and the Bangalees living there."