Bangladesh Army personnels and Songskar party(militia) armed cadres killed seven innocent villagers at Zurvarawng in Bandarban district of the Chittagong Hill Tracts on Good Friday, Kuki-Chin National Army leaders said.
Songskar party is a splinter group of Chakma militant group called Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS) fighting for reformation of their Regional Council.
The joined forces attacked the innocent villagers without any provocation on Good Friday, a villager of nearby Ramthar, sources said.
They said that the Bangladesh Army personnel opened fire indiscriminately and gunned down seven persons of Zurvarawng village,
Thos gunned down by Bangladesh army personnel are – Van duh Bawm (28), Sang Khum Bawm (60), Sun Phir Thang Bawm (22), Bawi Rem Bawm (14), Jahim Bawm (14), Lal Lian Ngak Bawm (45) and Lal Tha Zar Bawm (27), all villagers of Zurvarawng.
Zurvarawng is inhabited by Bawm Christian community of the Kuki-Chin tribe.
Sources said that the Bangladesh army dared not launch operation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and diverted their operation against the innocent civilians in the area.
“The Bangladesh Army has been arresting and killing innocent people for several months on the pretext of launching crackdowns on the KNA, an outfit fighting for a separate state for the Kuki-Chin people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts,” he said.
He added, “As the village is too far from the Mizoram (Indian) border. All of the villagers (old men, women and children) have left the village as they fear another military onslaught on innocent villagers, and were hiding in the jungles.”
Over 500 refugees from Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh, along the Mizoram-Bangladesh border villages have taken shelter in south Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district since the brutal crackdown on civilians by the joint forces of Bangladesh Army and the Myanmar militant group – Arakan Army (AA) in November Last year.
Parva village situated near the Mizoram-Bangladesh-Myanmar trijunction has been the main destination of the refugees seeking refuge in the state and a number of them have been relocated in nearby villages by the district administration.
