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Published : 25 May 2026, 05:09 PM
Just one and a half months after authorities declared they had established full control over the hill tracts of Jungle Salimpur and Alinagar, a brazen, coordinated assault by armed criminals has shattered the brief spell of calm.
In a midnight offensive, hundreds believed to belong to the notorious “Yasin Force” attacked a joint forces camp, engaging in a fierce, hours-long gunfight with law enforcement and sabotaging crucial infrastructure to delay reinforcements.
The attack serves as a violent reminder that despite a massive, multi-agency crackdown in March involving over 3,000 personnel, drones, and helicopters, the real kingpins of Chattogram’s lawless hill empire remain at large.
The ambush began around 1am on Sunday, targeting a temporary camp setup at Alinagar High School, which has housed roughly 150 personnel from the Police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), and the Armed Police Battalion (APBn) since March.
According to construction workers sleeping on-site, the attackers arrived well-prepared.
A convoy of motorcycles and a truck carrying an excavator moved into position, and hundreds of men armed with sticks, sharp weapons, and firearms surrounded the school from the east, west, and south, the workers recalled.
"We woke up to the sound of heavy gunfire and saw police officers running toward the school to defend the perimeter," a bricklayer told bdnews24.com, recounting how he and other workers had to hide in nearby ditches as bullets shattered the area's light posts.
The primary target of the destruction appeared to be a newly under-construction, semi-permanent camp located just east of the school.
The criminals used the excavator to tear down the school’s perimeter walls and systematically vandalised the new structure, which was nearly 90 percent complete.
The attackers executed a tactical lockdown of the area to ensure the joint forces could not easily receive reinforcements.
By Monday morning, the approach road from the Bayezid Link Road -- the primary entry point into the hills -- was found severed in four separate locations.
The criminals had used the excavator to dig deep, wide trenches across the culverts, effectively blocking heavy law enforcement vehicles.
As a result, responding units of the Army, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), RAB, and police were forced to abandon their vehicles miles away and march into the rough terrain on foot.
By the time they arrived, the bulk of the attackers had vanished into the dense jungle.
Lt Col Hafizur Rahman, commander of RAB-7, said the joint forces put up a strong resistance.
"The Yasin Force launched a massive attack with 200 to 300 men. They didn't just have domestic weapons, they fired at us with sophisticated firearms like AK-47s and Chinese rifles," he said.
Chattogram Superintendent of Police Masud Alam confirmed that police fired 105 rounds in self-defence.
No casualties were reported on the side of law enforcement, and the joint forces seized the abandoned excavator, truck, and two motorcycles left behind by the fleeing criminals.
The resurgence of violence underscores the deep-rooted criminal infrastructure embedded in the hills.
Local residents had previously warned bdnews24.com in April that despite the government’s triumphalist declarations, the true leaders of the illegal settlements had evaded capture during the Mar 9 sweep.
Yasin, a former mill worker, originally rose to power alongside criminal leader Ali Akkas in the early 2000s when displaced, low-income people began illegally settling the 11 zones of Jungle Salimpur.
Following Akkas’s death in a 2010 shootout with RAB, Yasin solidified absolute control over the Alinagar sector through the "Alinagar Multi-purpose Co-operative Society", managed by his brothers and nephews.
Following the political regime change in Bangladesh in August 2024, Yasin allegedly seized control of the entire Jungle Salimpur ecosystem, dictating who could buy land or enter the area.
Over the decades, what started as a slum transformed into a lucrative, untaxed empire attracting not just the poor, but wealthy buyers, including corrupt government officials looking for cheap hill plots.
This is not the first time the gang has turned deadly, in January, a RAB unit was swarmed by a mob whipped up by loudspeakers in the area, resulting in the lynching of RAB Nayek Subedar Motaleb Hossain Bhuiyan.
When asked how a criminal syndicate could orchestrate such a large-scale attack just 45 days after the government claimed "absolute control", SP Masud admitted that dismantling a decades-old criminal empire takes time.
"This is a massive empire where their financial interests have been severely disrupted by our presence. They were waiting for an opportunity to launch a counter-strike," he said.
Security experts also note the timing of the ambush.
The attack took place just days before Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed is scheduled to inspect Jungle Salimpur on May 31.
Hafizur highlighted difficulties in navigating broken roads in the hilly terrain to capture Yasin.
"If the communication infrastructure is fixed and we get a paved road from Bayezid Link Road to this point, we can respond in five minutes. He won't have a chance to escape then," the commander said.
