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The Chittagong Hill Tracts News The Chittagong Hill Tracts, is an online based news portal of Bangladesh.

In the fading light of a July afternoon, the village of Balapara in northern Bangladesh fell silent—not from peace, but ...
28/07/2025

In the fading light of a July afternoon, the village of Balapara in northern Bangladesh fell silent—not from peace, but from fear.

The echo of shattered glass, the acrid stench of scorched of vandalised belongings, and the hollow eyes of families watching their homes crumble were all that remained.

Hindu families, generations rooted in this soil, now sleep in fields and makeshift shelters, stripped of their dignity by fanatics mobs incensed over a teenager’s Facebook post.

What began as a digital accusation against a 17-year-old Hindu student has metastasized into an ominous campaign of mob vigilantism, exacerbated by a fragile political transition.

Since Nobel laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus assumed the role of interim chief in August 2024 following the ousting of Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh has seen a surge in extrajudicial violence, often cloaked in religious fervor and fueled by social media hysteria.

The Chittagong Hill TractsThe Chittagong Hill Tracts, is an online based news portal of Bangladesh.It covers especially Health, Education, Environment, Land, Culture, Agriculture, Change Making, Politics, Podcast and Untold Stories of CHT with details.

Students at Milestone School and College in Dhaka alleged on Tuesday that at least 150 individuals mostly children were ...
22/07/2025

Students at Milestone School and College in Dhaka alleged on Tuesday that at least 150 individuals mostly children were killed when a Bangladesh Air Force fighter jet crashed into their school building, sharply contradicting the government’s official death toll of 31.

The crash, which occurred on Monday morning, has sparked outrage and mass protests by students demanding the government disclose the true number of casualties and launch an independent investigation.

Students accused authorities of attempting to conceal the scale of the tragedy by removing bodies and suppressing information.
“We saw many more bodies than the government admits,” said Imran Hossain, a Class XI student. “At least 150 people were killed — students, teachers, and staff.”

Several teachers said they witnessed security forces forcibly removing bodies late at night, sometimes in unmarked vehicles, fueling suspicions of a deliberate cover-up.

“They took away bodies when rescue was supposedly over,” said one teacher, requesting anonymity for fear of reprisal. “We were warned not to speak or document the casualties. Some colleagues were even threatened.”

The Chittagong Hill TractsThe Chittagong Hill Tracts, is an online based news portal of Bangladesh.It covers especially Health, Education, Environment, Land, Culture, Agriculture, Change Making, Politics, Podcast and Untold Stories of CHT with details.

Van Lal Rual Bawm, a 38-year-old member from Bangladesh’s indigenous Bawm community, died on July 17 in Chattogram Medic...
18/07/2025

Van Lal Rual Bawm, a 38-year-old member from Bangladesh’s indigenous Bawm community, died on July 17 in Chattogram Medical College Hospital after more than a year in detention without formal charges or trial.

His death marks the third in three consecutive months of Bawm detainees dying in custody during an ongoing military crackdown in the country’s southeastern Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), raising serious concerns about systemic abuses and the erosion of legal safeguards.

Van Lal’s death follows those of two other Bawm detainees: Lalthleng Kim Bawm, 30, who died on May 15 at Chattogram Central Jail; and Sangmoy Bawm, believed to be in his late 50s, who died at his home on June 1, two days after being released on bail due to serious illness attributed to inadequate medical care in custody.

Yet, despite mounting public outrage and urgent appeals from civil society, the interim government led by Dr. Yunus has maintained a resolute silence—offering neither explanation nor initiating any independent inquiry into the deaths.

The Chittagong Hill TractsThe Chittagong Hill Tracts, is an online based news portal of Bangladesh.It covers especially Health, Education, Environment, Land, Culture, Agriculture, Change Making, Politics, Podcast and Untold Stories of CHT with details.

On Wednesday, hundreds of indigenous students and local residents staged a peaceful demonstration in Bhaibonchhara, dema...
17/07/2025

On Wednesday, hundreds of indigenous students and local residents staged a peaceful demonstration in Bhaibonchhara, demanding the immediate arrest of the accused and an impartial investigation.

Witnesses reported that the Bangladesh Army intervened with baton charges, forcibly dispersing the crowd and injuring several protesters, including minors.

Footage reviewed by this publication shows uniformed personnel chasing unarmed demonstrators.

Protesters and community leaders have accused the military of siding with the accused and attempting to intimidate indigenous residents into silence.

“They beat students, girls, and elders. We were peacefully demanding justice, not violence,” said one protester, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals. “Instead of arresting the rapists, they attacked us.”

The Chittagong Hill TractsThe Chittagong Hill Tracts, is an online based news portal of Bangladesh.It covers especially Health, Education, Environment, Land, Culture, Agriculture, Change Making, Politics, Podcast and Untold Stories of CHT with details.

At least four civilians were killed and dozens injured in Gopalganj on Wednesday after security forces opened fire durin...
17/07/2025

At least four civilians were killed and dozens injured in Gopalganj on Wednesday after security forces opened fire during a tense standoff surrounding a controversial rally by the opposition Nationalist Citizens’ Party (NCP), sparking condemnation and intensifying scrutiny over the role of Bangladesh’s military and police in quelling dissent.

Witnesses and local residents said the clash began when a small group of NCP leaders — escorted under heavy army protection — entered the Gopalganj municipal park via an alternate route through Tekerhat, bypassing earlier roadblocks on the Barishal-Kotalipara highway.

Among those fatally shot was 18-year-old Ramzan Kazi, a resident of Kotalipara, who had earlier been seen walking beside police officers.

“He never imagined this would be his final walk,” said his father, Kamrul Kazi, who broke down in tears. “My son did nothing wrong. Where will I find my child now?”

Ramzan was one of three unarmed civilians fatally shot near Chourangi intersection, according to locals.

Another victim, Dipto Saha, was struck in the abdomen while walking to his family shop after lunch, his uncle said. “He wasn’t part of any protest. He was just trying to get back to work.”

A third victim, Sohel Molla, a mobile phone vendor at Keramat Ali Plaza in the city, was confirmed dead by fellow shopkeeper Jony Khan, who said he found Sohel’s body after the shooting subsided.

Despite being barely four months old and lacking a substantial grassroots presence, the Nationalist Citizens’ Party (NCP) has emerged as an unusually influential actor—reportedly enjoying direct and preferential access to the chief adviser Mohammad Yunus and key members of the interim cabinet.

Critics allege that the interim government is weaponizing state forces to suppress dissent and fabricate a façade of legitimacy.

Meanwhile, the NCP’s privileged access to the corridors of power has allowed the fledgling party to wield outsized influence over policymaking—marginalizing established political forces struggling to voice their legitimate demands.

The Chittagong Hill TractsThe Chittagong Hill Tracts, is an online based news portal of Bangladesh.It covers especially Health, Education, Environment, Land, Culture, Agriculture, Change Making, Politics, Podcast and Untold Stories of CHT with details.

A teenage girl and two women from the Mro indigenous community were killed in the early hours of Monday in a remote vill...
14/07/2025

A teenage girl and two women from the Mro indigenous community were killed in the early hours of Monday in a remote village in Bangladesh’s southeastern Bandarban hill district after a faulty electrical transformer exploded, sending a deadly surge of electricity through their homes.

“I had a happy family,” said Rengyen Mro, the father of Tumle and son of Urkan, speaking through tears.

"We told the power department again and again about the faulty transformer. A technician came on Sunday, but nothing was fixed. Then, just hours later, flames. Sparks everywhere. My daughter tried to turn off the fridge — she was thrown to the floor. My mother tried to save her and died in the process. No one from the government came. My family was obliterated.”

On Sunday night, following heavy rainfall, it reportedly caught fire, triggering an uncontrolled voltage surge that electrified homes across Ranglai Para and the neighbouring villages of Moddhom Para and Chingsong Para.

“There were blue sparks and loud cracking sounds coming out of the walls,” said one resident.

“The electricity stayed on for nearly 30 minutes. People were screaming. We called the PDB over and over again. No one came.”

Activists argue that such disasters are not coincidental, but rather the predictable outcomes of a state apparatus that prioritises development elsewhere while leaving minority communities in deep precarity.

The Chittagong Hill TractsThe Chittagong Hill Tracts, is an online based news portal of Bangladesh.It covers especially Health, Education, Environment, Land, Culture, Agriculture, Change Making, Politics, Podcast and Untold Stories of CHT with details.

Indigenous communities in the remote Sajek region of Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) have accused the military...
10/07/2025

Indigenous communities in the remote Sajek region of Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) have accused the military and forest authorities of impeding the construction of the area’s first higher education institution — a locally led initiative they describe as a pivotal effort to overcome decades of structural marginalisation and educational exclusion.

Local indigenous communities say the move reflects entrenched discrimination in the Hill Tracts, where a heavy military presence and top-down development often ignore their voices.

“This land has been used by our people for generations. Suddenly it becomes ‘reserved forest’ only when we try to build a college?” said Atulal Chakma, chairman of the Sajek Union Parishad, who has overseen the project.

“We have seen religious and military establishments built in the same forest land without objection. But when we prioritise education, we are told it’s illegal.”

The allegations have reignited longstanding tensions in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, a region home to eleven indigenous communities, including the Chakma, Marma, Tripura, Mro, Tanchangya, Bawm, Khumi, Chak, Khiang, Lushai, and Pangkhua.

While the 1997 Peace Accord between the government and the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti (PCJSS) promised demilitarisation and indigenous rights, critics argue that tangible progress remains elusive on the ground.

The Chittagong Hill TractsThe Chittagong Hill Tracts, is an online based news portal of Bangladesh.It covers especially Health, Education, Environment, Land, Culture, Agriculture, Change Making, Politics, Podcast and Untold Stories of CHT with details.

The land had been cultivated by four Mro families for over two years and contained more than 1,200 mature banana trees a...
26/06/2025

The land had been cultivated by four Mro families for over two years and contained more than 1,200 mature banana trees and 70 papaya plants.

Villagers say the forest department did not issue any formal notification or engage in consultation before initiating the clearance operation.

“These trees were not just plants — they were our sustenance, our survival,” said Meng Kring Mro.

“We nurtured them with our own hands. Now, overnight, everything is gone.”

“We have cleaned the area for plantation under the afforestation programme, as the area is part of the Mathamuhuri Reserve Forest,” said Mohammad Mostafizur Rahman, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of the Lama Forest Division.

However, affected families said the land has been used for jhum cultivation for generations under their ancestral customs and traditional use rights.

“We have used this land for jhum cultivation since the time of our ancestors. It was never officially declared a reserve forest—no gazette notification was issued, no land acquisition process was ever carried out,” said Aung Hla Mro, a resident of the area. “This land carries our heritage and identity.

The Chittagong Hill TractsThe Chittagong Hill Tracts, is an online based news portal of Bangladesh.It covers especially Health, Education, Environment, Land, Culture, Agriculture, Change Making, Politics, Podcast and Untold Stories of CHT with details.

In a grim tableau of sectarian cruelty that echoes through the annals of Bangladesh’s troubled communal history, an elde...
24/06/2025

In a grim tableau of sectarian cruelty that echoes through the annals of Bangladesh’s troubled communal history, an elderly Hindu barber, Paresh Chandra Shil, 69, and his son, Bishnu Chandra Shil, 35, were brutally assaulted by a frenzied Muslim mob on Sunday in the northern district of Lalmonirhat.

This savage attack, provoked by spurious allegations of “insulting” Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, underscores the perilous plight of Bangladesh’s Hindu minority, who face escalating persecution under a veneer of religious zealotry and political instability.

Video footage circulated widely on social media captures the raw violence inflicted on Paresh — punched, kicked, and forcibly stripped of his vest by an enraged crowd — while Bishnu suffered similar beatings as he intervened to protect his father.

Both men were subsequently arrested by police on charges of “hurting religious sentiments,” a legal pretext increasingly exploited to justify repression.

This latest incident exemplifies a mounting and systemic wave of religious persecution that has surged markedly since the removal of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024.

A senior Hindu leader in Dhaka, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated that they have documented at least 15 incidents targeting Hindu individuals accused of blasphemy or offending Islamic sentiments under the regime of Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus.

The Chittagong Hill TractsThe Chittagong Hill Tracts, is an online based news portal of Bangladesh.It covers especially Health, Education, Environment, Land, Culture, Agriculture, Change Making, Politics, Podcast and Untold Stories of CHT with details.

Nearly nine years after three indigenous men were shot dead during a violent eviction, tensions have resurfaced in north...
20/06/2025

Nearly nine years after three indigenous men were shot dead during a violent eviction, tensions have resurfaced in northern Bangladesh as Santal communities protest a proposed industrial project on land they claim as ancestral.

Dozens of indigenous villagers launched a hunger strike this week in Gaibandha’s Gobindaganj area, demanding the government immediately scrap plans to build an Export Processing Zone (EPZ) on land historically cultivated by their families.

The protesters say the 1,842-acre plot—originally seized for sugar production during Pakistan’s rule—should have been returned to the community after the Rangpur Sugar Mill ceased operations in 2004.

“The land was taken from our forefathers under the promise of public use,” said Rupen Murmu, a local community leader.

“Now that the mill is closed, the government must return what is rightfully ours.”

The Chittagong Hill TractsThe Chittagong Hill Tracts, is an online based news portal of Bangladesh.It covers especially Health, Education, Environment, Land, Culture, Agriculture, Change Making, Politics, Podcast and Untold Stories of CHT with details.

By all accounts, we are living in a golden age of heroism in Bangladesh—though not the kind you might find in dusty epic...
06/06/2025

By all accounts, we are living in a golden age of heroism in Bangladesh—though not the kind you might find in dusty epics or UN treaties on human rights.

No, in this brave new republic under Nobel laureate Yunus’s watchful silence, a different kind of valor is celebrated.

It doesn’t involve rescuing lives or speaking truth to power. It involves kicking women.

Yes, that’s right. Strike a woman in broad daylight, preferably on camera, and you don’t just walk free—you ride out to thunderous applause, petals at your feet, and a garland of marigolds around your neck.

Call it patriarchy’s parade. In this surreal theatre of justice, bail is not a legal relief; it is a coronation.

Take young Akash Chowdhury, an islamist hardliner, and a member of Jammat-e-Islami captured on video launching his feet at a female protester. One might assume such barbarism would be met with societal shame.

But lo! The moment he exited jail, he was welcomed like a returning Odysseus.

Garlanded. Photographed.

Flanked by admirers who seemed to believe that gender-based violence is a rite of passage, not a crime.

The Chittagong Hill TractsThe Chittagong Hill Tracts, is an online based news portal of Bangladesh.It covers especially Health, Education, Environment, Land, Culture, Agriculture, Change Making, Politics, Podcast and Untold Stories of CHT with details.

He died with shackles on his dignity.Sangmoy Bawm—a man whose name in his native tongue means “elevated radiance”—was no...
02/06/2025

He died with shackles on his dignity.

Sangmoy Bawm—a man whose name in his native tongue means “elevated radiance”—was not a militant, nor a criminal.

He was a sick, aging member of the Bawm community, a Christian Indigenous minority in Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), persecuted not for deeds, but for identity.

On Sunday afternoon, Sangmoy took his final breath in his home in Bandarban.

He had just been granted bail—two days too late.

For over a year, he had languished in jail under unsubstantiated allegations.

No court could convict him.

No evidence could justify his imprisonment. Yet he was detained, denied medical care, and reduced to a skeletal frame by the time he was hospitalized. Even then, justice crawled.

His bail came only when his body had already begun to collapse.

The Chittagong Hill TractsThe Chittagong Hill Tracts, is an online based news portal of Bangladesh.It covers especially Health, Education, Environment, Land, Culture, Agriculture, Change Making, Politics, Podcast and Untold Stories of CHT with details.

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