Khushi Maheshwari, Pune
On Saturday, Agartala saw the Tripura Chakma Students’ Association or TCSA’s protest rally. TCSA marched took to the streets to protest against the gruesome killing of and brutalities against minorities and the indigenous population in Bangladesh. The atrocities are taking place in the country’s Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) by the Bangladesh army.
The protesters claim that the brutalities against the Indigenous population have magnified after the expulsion of the former Prime Minister of the country Sheikh Hasina. Members of the TCSA condemned the rapidly increasing violence, assaults, killings and instances of arson and vandalism taking place in CHT. The prime target of these atrocities has majorly been the minority Buddhist Chakma community. Additionally, countless Indigenous people have faced the wrath of the army.
A letter addressed to the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi by the Chakma leaders in the country on Friday reiterated the urgency of the matter and appealed to the Indian Government to denigrate its relations with the interim government in Bangladesh in light of the communal violence.
One of the protesters Amitav Chakma explained that in the letter to the PM, they emphasised the country’s need to interject in the crisis situation and provide security to the inflicted minorities of Bangladesh. He added that the Indigenous and Buddhist communities in Bangladesh have been earmarked for these attacks ever since the former PM Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power. He stated that the atrocities being committed against the people of his community in Bangladesh have prompted them to take out a rally against the inflictors of violence.
In another similar instance, members of the largest tribal youth union in Tripura called the Youth TIPRA Federation (YTF) resisted the alleged brutalities against and murders of the Indigenous population and violent hostilities against the Buddhist minority in CHT by laying out a protest outside the Deputy High Commission Of Bangladesh in Agartala on Saturday.
Another claim by the protesters is that the ambush of religious minorities and Indigenous groups was planned by illegal settlers with aid from the Bangladeshi army.
The YTF chief Suraj Debbarma, signed a memorandum urging for immediate intervention to safeguard the persecuted Indigenous groups in the country and submitted it to the Deputy High Commissioner of Bangladesh.