Protect tribals, urge Congress, BJP

India’s ruling Congress and the opposition BJP have asked the Bangladesh government for permanent rehabilitation and security for displaced Bangladeshi indigenous people who last week fled to Tripura after an ethnic strife broke out with Bengalee settlers in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Over 200 Congress members led by Tripura state unit President Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl and working President Ashish Saha met the head of the Bangladesh mission in Agartala, Obaidur Rahman, on Tuesday and submitted a memorandum regarding the issue, the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) said.

A delegation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by state party President Sudhindra Dasgupta, also met Rahman and put up a similar demand.

Over 1,800 men, women and children of Chakma and Tripuri tribes took shelter in the India-Bangladesh border village of Karbook on Saturday after fleeing from five villages in Khagrhachharhi.

They, however, returned to their villages on Sunday after several local MPs, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) officials and the local administration assured them full security.

"We have submitted a memorandum to the head of the Bangladesh mission here addressed to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina demanding security and rehabilitation to the minority tribals in CHT," IANS quoted Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl as telling reporters.

He said, "The Congress wants equal treatment for Bangladeshi citizens, especially the minorities."

"Minorities in Bangladesh are being attacked by the majority Muslims. The government must take stern action against the perpetrators and provide security to non-Muslim minorities," Sudhindra Dasgupta told reporters.

India’s Border Security Force (BSF) Deputy Inspector General Bhaskar Rawat said, "The tribals entered Indian territory Saturday evening after ethnic troubles in Bangladesh. They were stopped at the border by the BSF at the barbed wire fence. We provided them food and other assistance."

The tribals, mostly Buddhists and Hindus, fled the CHT after clashes over the reported abduction of a local Bengalee settler.

Police, however, have arrested seven people, including the alleged abducted individual, in the past couple days in connection to the violence.

"At least one tribal villager was killed and four others were seriously injured. About 500 tribal houses were burnt to ashes," Suhas Chakma, Director of Delhi-based rights group Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR), said in a press release.

Additional troopers of the BSF have been deployed along the border to deal with the situation and to prevent refugee influx into Indian territory.

In 1986, over 74,000 tribals - mostly Buddhist Chakmas - took shelter in southern Tripura following violent attacks on thousands of tribals by Bengali settlers.

They returned to their homes in Bangladesh 1997-98 after the Bangladesh government signed a peace agreement with the Parbattya Janasanghati Samity that led to the surrender of its military wing Shanti Bahini, an outlawed outfit which had been demanding sovereign status for tribals in CHT.

Tripura shares a 856-km border with Bangladesh, which is porous because it extends over mountains that are densely forested. Over 85 percent of the border has been fenced.