Khagrachari Correspondent, CHT News
Monday, 29 September 2025
United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF) spokesperson Aongay Marma has rejected the Bangladesh Army’s statement regarding the “communal violence in Khagrachari and Guimara on 27 and 28 September” as “a fabrication and a failed attempt to cover up their own crimes.”
In a press statement issued to the media today (Monday, 29 September 2025), he said,
“The Bangladesh Army has attempted to mislead the public with false information about the attacks in Khagrachari and Guimara. This will have a negative impact on the already volatile situation in the hills and will encourage the attackers.”
Holding the commanders of the two army brigades in Khagrachari and Guimara regions, their local proxy vigilantes known as the ‘Mottaleb Bahini’, and extremist settler groups responsible for the communal attacks, killings, looting, and arson targeting hill people, Angya Marma stated:
“The communal attacks were deliberately incited by the settler groups to derail the ongoing mass movement demanding justice for the gang-rape of a Marma teenage girl in Singinala and to protect the rapists.”
Sequence of Events
Highlighting the sequence of the events, Aongay Marma said:
- On 23 September, an 8th-grade Marma girl was gang-raped in Singinala, on the outskirts of Khagrachari town.
- In protest, under the banner of the “Jumma Chhatra Janata” (Jumma Student-People), locals organized a rally in Khagrachari on 24 September, announcing a 3-point protest program:
- Half-day road blockade in Khagrachari on 25 September.
- Grand rally on 26 September.
- Class boycott in schools and colleges from 25–27 September.
These were all successfully held.
- On 25 September, after the successful road blockade, at around 8:30 PM, army personnel publicly humiliated and forcibly dragged protest leader Ukkyanu Marma into a vehicle and took him to the Khagrachari Army Zone Headquarters.
In response, residents immediately took to the streets. The army was forced to release him around 10:30 PM due to public pressure. - On 26 September, during a grand rally at Chengi Square, organizers announced a full-day district-wide road blockade for 27 September.
- On 27 September, in an attempt to sabotage the blockade, extremist settlers were deployed. Initially, they tried to provoke confrontations in Khejurbagan, but failed. Later, under heavy army presence, settlers launched communal attacks in Mahajan Para and Yong-daw Buddhist Monastery areas.
In Yongd Monastery, three hill residents were brutally injured with sharp weapons.
When the attackers attempted to attack the monastery itself, one army personnel firmly restrained them.
Angya Marma praised this soldier’s professionalism, stating,
“If other army personnel had shown the same professionalism and neutrality, the hill people could have been protected from these attacks.” But he lamented that such professionalism was rare.
Given the ongoing biased and communal behavior of the army towards hill people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Jumma Chhatra Janata was compelled to announce an indefinite road blockade from 28 September onwards.
28 September Incidents
Aongay Marma stated:
- On the morning of 28 September, during the blockade, army personnel raided several villages in Perachara and Bhaibonechara, arresting three people including a school student and assaulting a rural healthcare provider and a government college lecturer.
- Around 12 PM, in Ramesu Bazaar of Guimara (a Marma-majority area), the army, Mottaleb Bahini, and extremist settlers launched an unprovoked attack on hill residents.
The army and their thugs indiscriminately opened fire, while settlers looted shops and homes before setting them on fire. - According to the Khagrachari administration, at least three hill people were shot and killed in the attack. They are:
- Thwaiching Marma (25) – son of Hlacha Marma, from Bottola Para, Hafchhari, Guimara. A driver by profession.
- Akhro Marma (24) – son of Aparu Marma, from Saingguli Para, Baropilak, Guimara.
- Athwipru Marma (26) – son of Thwaihla Aung Marma, from Lichu Bagan, Hafchhari, Guimara.
- Over 30 people were injured, some critically.
- The attackers burned at least 16 homes, 50 shops, one Mahindra vehicle, and 16 motorcycles belonging to hill people.
Response to Army’s Statement
Aongay Marma refuted the army’s claim that UPDF members fired shots from the western hills of Ramesu Bazaar at army personnel and civilians. He said: “This is utterly false. No sensible person would believe such nonsense.”
He also questioned the army’s claim that UPDF “outsiders” set fire to homes and clashed with Bengali settlers:
“If the fires were started by so-called UPDF outsiders, what were our so-called ‘patriotic’ army personnel doing at the time? Were they asleep with oil on their noses?”
“How could UPDF members dare to set homes on fire right under the army’s nose? And if the clashes had started before any firing by UPDF, then what were the army personnel doing at that time?”
According to him, “Those who committed arson were not UPDF members. They were settler thugs deployed by the army to incite riots. With direct provocation and support from the army, they looted and burned Marma homes and shops.”
Aongay Marma accused the Khagrachari and Guimara brigade commanders of extreme bias and hostility toward hill communities, and demanded their immediate withdrawal.
UPDF’s 8-Point Demands to the Government
To resolve the situation, the UPDF spokesperson made the following demands:
- Establish a high-level judicial investigation committee with UN participation to investigate the communal attacks in Khagrachari and Guimara.
- Arrest and prosecute those involved in the gang-rape in Singinala through a fast-track court.
- Arrest and punish the army personnel, Mottaleb Bahini vigilantes, and settlers involved in the Ramesu Bazaar attack.
- Provide adequate compensation to the families of the deceased and injured, and ensure proper medical care.
- Arrest and prosecute the settlers involved in the Mahajan Para and Yongdaw Monastery attacks, and ensure medical care for the victims.
- Immediate and unconditional release of all those arrested.
- End indiscriminate raids, harassment, and arrests of activists and common people in their homes.
- Stop anti-Jumma community propaganda in print, electronic, and social media.
Regarding Arms Seizure and Past Incidents
Aongay Marma also dismissed as baseless and conspiratorial the army’s claim of recovering a cache of local weapons (e.g. machetes) from UPDF at the BGB’s Kaptai checkpoint on 28 September.
He further criticized the army for distorting the September 2024 attacks in Dighinala, Khagrachari, and Rangamati — where hill people’s homes, shops, and businesses were burned — and blamed the UPDF for them. He called this: “An attempt to turn day into night and white into black.”
“The failure to publish the investigation report on the 2024 attacks and bring the perpetrators to justice has emboldened army personnel and extremist settlers to repeat such attacks in Khagrachari town and Ramesu Bazaar,” he added.
In conclusion, Angya Marma remarked:
“With few exceptions, most commanders and personnel of the security forces deployed in the CHT are biased in favor of settlers, hostile towards hill people, and communal in their mindset. That’s why peace cannot be established in the region through their involvement.”
He demanded that the Bangladesh Army retract its statement and that the army personnel involved in the attacks in Khagrachari and Guimara be punished.
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