Four people, including an army officer, have been killed in a shootout between the army and ‘criminals’ in Bandarban’s Ruma.
Published : 03 Feb 2022, 10:39 AM
Army officials said a patrol was involved in a shootout with members of a faction of the Parbatya Jana Sanghati Samiti (JSS) led by Shantu Larma in the Bathipara area of Ruma Upazila around 10:30pm, according to a statement from the Inter-Services Public
Relations (ISPR).
The JSS denied its involvement with the incident or having any armed members.
An army officer and three JSS members were killed in the violence, said Major Ershad Ullah, of the Bandarban region of the army.
The dead army man was identified as Senior Warrant Officer Habibur Rahman, the leader of the patrol team. The JSS members have yet to be identified.
Another soldier named Firoz was shot in the leg and admitted to the Chattogram Combined Military Hospital.
A patrol team led by Habibur went to the neighbourhood after hearing reports that a group of criminal JSS followers would go to Bathipara to extort people for money.
Once the team reached Bathipara, the miscreants suddenly opened fire on the patrol team from an ambush vantage point.
The patrol team retaliated and injured three armed criminals.
As they fled, the remaining criminals continued to fire and hit Senior Warrant Officer Habibur on the head. A bullet also hit Firoz in his right leg.
The dead officer and the injured were shifted to Chattogram Combined Military Hospital on Thursday by helicopter.
An SMG, 275 rounds of ammunition, three magazines, three muskets, five musket shells, four pairs of uniforms and Tk 52,900 ‘collected through extortion’ were seized, the army said.
JSS in a statement refuted the allegations later. “Jana Sanghati Samiti or any of its members were not involved with the incident. In fact, the question of Janasanghati Samiti having any sort of armed group does not arise. The allegations are utterly baseless and have political ill-intent.”
The group said it thinks the allegations were brought “to destroy the movement to implement the Chattogram Hill Tracts Peace Accord and vanquish Jana Sanghati Samiti”.