In August 2007, Bangladesh army backed Muslim settlers broke into the boundary of Sadhantila Buddhist Temple in Dighinala and began erecting houses inside the temple boundary. Here the settlers argue with resident Buddhist monk.

Bengali settlers beat Buddhist monk and women in Ramgarh

On 31 May, 1995, Rev. U Kai Chara (50), the monk of Jagat Shanti Buddhist Temple of Chowdhury Para in Ramgarh, Khagrachari district and some indigenous Buddhist women devotees were walking along the Mahalchari‑Jaliapara Road on their way from Goria Para village under the jurisdiction of Mahalchari to a religious function at Ramgarh. When they arrived at No. 2 Road Protection Post (Bangladesh army check post), a group of 15 Muslim settlers and labourers who live at Barpilak cluster village in Ramgarh, began to abuse them with obscene languages. Naturally, one of the indigenous Buddhist women devotees protested at the rude behaviour of the Muslims settlers and labourers.

Indigenous Buddhist people have no right to protest even when they are abused by any Muslim settlers in Muslim dominated Bangladesh. So, the Muslim settlers and labourers punished the monk and all the women devotees by mercilessly flogging them for their audacity to protest in the full view of the Bangladesh army.

Some of the Muslim settlers and labourers were identified as-

1. Mohammad Nazrul Islam, son of Mohammad Abid Sarkar
2. Mohammad Abdul Ali, son of Mohammad Saruja Mistry
3. Mohammad Kasem, son of Mohammad Alauddin
4. Mohammad Swapan, son of Mohammad Abul Basar and so on

In 1947, India was partitioned on the basis of religion. In 1947, 98.5% of the CHT population was non-Muslim. The indigenous people of CHT opted to join either India or Burma. But Muslim League conspired with the Boundary Commission and illegally annexed CHT with East Pakistan in violation of the principle of partition. Successive Bangladesh governments have been sponsoring Muslim settlers from plain land to dilute the indigenous people of CHT. Bangladesh army's role is to protect the Muslim settlers and carry out ethnic cleansing against indigenous people in CHT.

Religious persecution and destruction of places of worship is commonplace in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). Religious persecution takes place in the form of torture, murder, intimidation of the Buddhist monks and deliberate and systematic destructions of places of worship.

There have been numerous incidents of forcible conversion in the CHT. Buddhist men or women who marry Bengali Muslims whether by choice or by force, have to convert to Islam. The Buddhist prisoners who are detained in Chittagong, Rangamati or Khagrachari jails are placed in cells with a majority of Muslims whose task it is to try and convert the Buddhist persons. The Buddhists who are captured by the Bangladeshi security forces are very often given the options of torture or conversion to Islam as a way to escape the suffering.

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