On 2 February 1992 Bangladesh army backed Muslim settlers killed at least 30 indigenous Chakma Buddhists at Mallya. One of them was Shantibala Chakma, the wife of Mr. Saral Kumar Chakma. Two bombs exploded on a river ferry at Mallya. The explosion killed a passenger and seriously injured the skipper of the ferry. The survivors swam ashore but the armed Muslim settlers were waiting for them and attacked the indigenous Chakma Buddhists - men women and children.

CHT Developement Board organize development workshop in Rangamati

On 23-25 Jan 1995, the CHT Development Board organised an international workshop on The Hill Districts of Bangladesh and the Experiences on Development at the auditorium of the Tourist Department in Rangamati.

Maj. Gen. Azizur Rahman inaugurated the workshop. Mr. Fazlul Hasan Yusuf the Secretary of the Special Affairs Division under Prime Minister's Secretariat presided over it. Mr. Igbut Pelnik the Director General of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, Nepal, was the Chief Guest.

Mr. Pelnik said that the CHT was an ideal area for utilising the experiences of developing mountain regions. However he stressed that given the prevailing situation in the CHT and also in Bangladesh, full international cooperation was a must for the development of the CHT.

Another speaker Mr. Fasiuddin Mahtab, a former Minister of Bangladesh pointed out that there were many natural resources in the CHT and that those should be exploited and utilised properly.

Mr. Yusuf suggested that although 40% of the cultivable land of the CHT had gone under the water of the Kaptai Hydroelectric Dam, the highlands around the lake could be cultivated if adequate irrigation arrangement provided.

It may be recalled that the BG has already rehabilitated thousands of Muslim settlers in all areas surrounding the Kaptai lake. Doubtless, Mr. Yusuf's proposal was intended to benefit them and also to set up more Muslim settlements in the lake area under the garb of so called "economic developments" in the CHT.

Perhaps, it is worth noting that the hidden purpose of the Bangladesh Government behind its Afforestation Scheme is to depopulate the indigenous villages and communal lands and then to resettle the depopulated areas with Muslim settlers.

Similarly, the secret agenda of the Bangladesh Government for carrying out survey in the CHT is to distribute the indigenous lands to the Muslim settlers.

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