Bangladeshi Insurgents Say India Is Supporting Them
By SANJOY HAZARIKA, Special to The New York Times
Published: June 11, 1989
AGARTALA, India— For more than a decade, India has secretly provided arms and money to tribal insurgents fighting for an autonomous state in Bangladesh, rebels given sanctuary in this border area say.
A senior security official here confirmed the assistance and said an undetermined number of rebel fighters had stayed along the border near camps of Indian paramilitary forces.
''The Government is giving them help,'' the official added, without elaborating.
The rebels, who are mostly Buddhists, belong to the Chakma and other tribes in the Chittagong Hills of Bangladesh. They say they are being persecuted and pushed off their fertile land by an influx of ethnic Bengali Bangladeshis, who are overwhelmingly Muslim. Elections Are Planned
President H. M. Ershad of Bangladesh is planning to hold elections on June 25 to give some local autonomy to the Chittagong Hill Tracts, but the Shanti Bahini, the guerrilla organization fighting the Government, has called for a boycott of the vote and declared it will disrupt balloting.
A spokesman for the rebels said Indian officials began to provide arms and money in 1976, after the assassination in a military coup of Sheik Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's first President and a friend of India.
The spokesman, Bimal Chakma, said the Indian Government had not given as many weapons as were needed. ''At the beginning we got some consideration, but it is very low compared with what we need.''
The Shanti Bahini has an estimated 500 guerrillas. Over the years, the insurgents have increased their armory by capturing weapons through raids on Bangladesh military units. The rebels in the Chittagong Hill Tracts also picked up large caches of Chinese semi-automatic weapons during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war. Past Help for Pakistani Rebels
India also armed, trained and financed ethnic Bengali rebels seeking to break away from Pakistan, of which Bangladesh, then East Pakistan, was a part. The guerrilla attacks escalated into a war between India and Pakistan in 1971 after 10 million people fled military atrocities into India. Pakistani troops were routed and Bangladesh was created.
The Shanti Bahini, which means peace corps in the Bengali language, was formed in 1972 after a rejection of demands for autonomy, preferential treatment and an end to the Muslim influx. The Shanti Bahini says it has killed more than 500 members of the Bangladeshi military and the police as well as Muslim settlers.
''We are not separatists and we do not want armed intervention by India,'' said Mr. Chakma, the rebel spokesman. He said they wanted a stop to Muslim settlers, protection of the region's demographic character, free elections and extensive economic and political powers.
Sudhir Ranjan Majumdar, the Chief Minister or top elected official of Tripura state in northeast India, said the state did not ''harbor any Shanti Bahini, although their political wing is here.''
''We have a foreign mission here to consult with the Indian Government,'' a rebel official said. ''When there are bad combing operations by the Bangladesh army our fighters cross the border for security. They also come on leave from the campaigns.'' An Exodus to India
Since 1986, India has absorbed more than 51,000 refugee tribespeople, nearly 9,000 of them in the last two weeks, as they flee what is said to be military repression in the region. The refugees include supporters of the Shanti Bahini and leaders of the movement's political wing, the Jana Sanghata Samiti or People's Struggle Organization.
Bangladesh is the world's most densely populated region and one of its poorest. Since it was formed, Muslim settlers have been moving from other parts of the country to the lightly populated Chittagong Hill Tracts. The influx has changed the ethnic composition of the place and brought tension and clashes in its wake.
The current population of the Chittagong Hill Tracts is about one million, with nearly 600,000 tribespeople. The rest are Muslim settlers.
Bangladesh has stepped up a bitter army campaign against the Chakmas, sending them fleeing into India several times in the last 17 years. The 1986 exodus was the biggest. Rights Violations Reported
Amnesty International, the human rights organization, has reported serious violations of human rights in the Chittagong Hill Tracts by Bangladeshi military personnel, including rape, torture and indiscriminate shooting. Recent refugees say the assaults on women, capture of farmland by Muslim settlers and killing of Chakmas is continuing.
The weariness with fighting is showing and the Shanti Bahini held six rounds of talks over the last year with Bangladeshi officials. However, there has been little progress, Mr. Chakma said.
Map of India and Bangladesh indicating the Chittagong Hills. (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/11/world/bangladeshi-insurgents-say-india-is-supporting-them.html
http://cht-terrorism.blogspot.com/2014/03/Shanti-Bahini-were-trained-armed-by-India.htm
Shanti Bahini was sheltered, trained and armed by India. Why and How? Read the Article.
Genocide in the Chittagong Hill Tracts- CHT (Pics) - 1
Who is Shantu Larma?
Issues Of Dispute And The Contemporary Developments In Chittagong Hill Tracts
Chittagong Hill Tracts, which is one tenth of the total size of the country, with its enormous natural resources and strategic geographic location is vital for the existence of Bangladesh. Taking advantage of geographic proximity to its Tripura state and the desire of the local Chakma tribes for greater autonomy with an ultimate goal of creating Jummaland, an independent state for Chakmas.
India's Policy of supporting secessionist movements in Bangladesh
India used its military and intelligence resources to provide help and support to Shanti Bahini. The surreptitious Indian involvement in providing money and weapons to tribal insurgents (Shanti Bahini) in the Chittagong Hill Tracks since 1976 was acknowledged by Bimal Chakma, a Shanti Bahini official in an interview with The New York Times in June 11, 1989. [
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/11/world/bangladeshi-insurgents-say-india-is-supp]orting-them.html]
India used the insurgents against Bangladesh as a tool to gain political and economic concessions which she would not otherwise be able to extract from the government of Bangladesh.
Finally, Bangladesh entered into a peace agreement with Shanti Bahini in 1997 to end insurgency and restore law and order in Chittagong Hill Tracks, but the security and intelligence agencies of the Bangladesh are still convinced that a lot of ex-Shanti Bahini members and other terrorists are still getting help from Indian security agencies and are hiding in the North East states of India.
Why India sheltered secessionist movements of Shanti Bahini?
Because of India’s step motherly attitude towards its landlocked North Eastern states, a growing sense of deprivation, exploitation and insecurity is prevalent among the people of this region, which has contributed to give birth to a number of insurgent groups who have taken up arms against their own government for self-determination.
India’s myopic decision to crush insurgency through military means without finding the root causes to better understand the problem and the absence of a mature policy of providing economic and social incentives to remove inequalities have created myriad of problems causing further alienation of indigenous people. India in an attempt to portray itself as a victim of terrorism is now trying to find a scapegoat in Bangladesh to blame for the insurgency to conceal its failure to contain insurgencies in the North East and disprove its own involvement in secessionist movement in Chittagong Hill Tracts.
Some References on how India sheltered Shanti Bahini
Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) is part and parcel of Bangladesh since time immemorial. Bangladesh is not an occupation power in CHT. But India being a friendly country since 1973 strives to cede CHT from Bangladesh. With this end in view India motivated Manibendu Larma to float a separatist group Parbatiya Chhotogram Jano Shanghati Somity (PCJSS) and its military wing Shanti Bahini (SB).
A huge number of Shanti Bahini terrorists were sheltered, trained and, armed by India : Pic Taken in 1997 during peace accord signing
Later India provided money, shelter, training, arms to SB to fight against Bangladesh. Asoka Raina, an Indian journalist in his book
Inside RAW Today: The Story of India’s Secret Services (Bikas Publishers, New Delhi, India, 1981, pp. 86-87) presented relevant documents in this regard. He wrote, the RAW operatives closely assisted the Chakma guerrillas. The Chakmas after the change of the government in 1975 contacted the RAW. They offered to infiltrate among the Mizo rebels and pass information to the Indian government in lieu of asylum. This offer was accepted by the then Indian government.
Ashoke Biswas in an article published in
The New Nation (August 31, 1994) of Dhaka wrote: The RAW was involved in training the rebels of Chakma tribes and Shanti Bahini to carry out subversive activities in Bangladesh.
In this context let me quote an Indian journalist and BBC Correspondent Mr. Subir Bhaumik. In an interview to Dhaka-based fortnightly news magazine
Probe (Vol. 1, issue 4, September 1-15, 2001), he said, “You will see in my book, Arom 1975-1990, the RAW backed Shanti Bahini. …… In 1976 after Shanti Bahini went underground, their people had gone for training in India. Mind you, the rank and file was trained in India. —— T
here was a clear indication given to Mr. Larma that India was prepared for up to 50,000 guerrillas. Train them, arm them and equip them.”
With this end in view India opened in Tripura and Mizoram, even at Chakrata near Dehradun. Tribid Chakma, a SB cadre, disclosed at a press conference held at National Press Club of Dhaka in September 1994 informed that SB terrorists opened 25 camps of which he could recollect the names of nine sites viz., Sabrum, Silachari, Boyal Para, Kadamtoli, Dayek, Barachari, Ralma, Trimagha and Ratannagar. He informed that some most trusted ones were trained at Dehradun.
A defunct English Weekly of Dhaka
Friday (June 3, 1998) informed, “The attempt of M. N. Larma to negotiate a settlement with the Ziaur Rahman government failed as the armed wing of the PCJSS was compelled to initiate armed operation under Indian pressure in 1976.” It was also disclosed later that India out of apprehension developed anti-Larma faction in PCJSS and on December 10, 1983 gunned down him along with his eight other comrades outwardly by Pritikumar faction. Indian government took no action against Pritikumar Chakma, rather allowed him to stay in India even after the signing of the so-called peace treaty.
Mr. Samiran Dewan, the Chairman of Khagrachari Hill District Local Government Council in a press conference, held India responsible for providing shelter, money, training and arms to the SB. He alleged the inner motive of SB was not to gain political and financial concession but to materialize India’s geo-political designs. (The Daily Inqilab, Dhaka, November 12, 1989).
Last, but not least, India in a bid to internationalize the CHT issue financed and manipulated so-called Chakma conferences in Amsterdam (1968), Hamburg (1987), New York (1992) and The Netherlands, Kolkata and Bangkok (1997) where Indian tribals were branded as the dwellers of CHT.
To create international pressure on Bangladesh India using its stooges persuaded about 70 thousand CTH tribal people to India. These so-called refugees when tried to flee away from India were detained in camps under BSF supervision. (For further information regarding India’s role in CHT, interested readers may go through to my book: The Chittagong Hill Tracts: A Victim of Indian Intervention, Eastern Publications, 16 Silvester House, London, EI 2JD, UK, 2003).
India imposed an undeclared war on Bangladesh violating the Indo-Bangladesh Cooperation and Friendship Treaty signed on March 19, 1972 by Bangladesh Founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman & Indira Gandhi what clearly guaranteed that one country would neither allow the terrorists of the other to use its territory nor encourage any activity subversive to the internal peace and security and territorial integrity.
By: Shahnawaz Ahmad Mantoo and Mohammad Zainal Abedin
India and the Strategic importance of Bangladesh
Genocide in the Chittagong Hill Tracts- CHT (Pics) - 1
Exclusive Photo archive of CHT Genocide, Committed by barbarous Shanti Bahini : Part 1
Who is Shantu Larma?
Issues Of Dispute And The Contemporary Developments In Chittagong Hill Tracts
Ending terrorism, establishing Human Rights and Peace in CHT
The conventional propaganda process refers not only to distorted facts but also to avoidance to show what people deserve to see. Every successful propaganda campaign has had its own unique tactics. But what made propaganda relating the CHT and its insurgency different than others? A generally understood propaganda technique is depriving people from truth or feeding them one-sided story to manipulate public perception. Propaganda campaigns related to the CHT have long exploited the manipulation technique and took it to a new height.
In the case of the CHT, according to Humayun Azad, one of the prominent humanist writers in Bangladesh, Shanti Bahini, the insurgent group, was badly beaten up by the Bangladesh Army in terms of battle power, but the group defeated the latter in terms of propagation.
A lifelong critic of military’s power abuse and malpractice in state affairs, Mr. Azad, wrote on his book namely Sabuj Paharer Buke Hingshar Jharandhara, that there might be exaggeration in describing Army’s involvement in mass killing in the CHT. The force, after all, is revered by the international community and the United Nations for its contribution in maintaining peace in conflict affected areas around the world.
A number of Bangladeshi media outlets – especially those who promote corporate and NGO culture – have long been exaggerating about Army’s role in the CHT, while the rebels – that is to say, the Shanti Bahini – involved in massacres of the Bengalee population, as well as of tribal population who refused to obey them, in the CHT were never held account. Press in Bangladesh tends to not ask or raise bitter questions about rebel led atrocities which, to some extent, can be termed as ‘genocide’ and ‘ethnic cleansing’.
No records of the brutality the Shanti Bahini committed in the name of ‘rights movement’ were preserved for future generation. A well-funded and well-organized gang of activists constantly worked to cover up all the footprints the separatists left behind.
However, some people who did bother to preserve some of those photo evidences have given us some remembrances of how brutal the force was. In addition, we collected some newspaper cuttings to show how the Shanti Bahini performed biggest ever mass killings in Bangladesh after its inception in 1971. These pictures can be called '
a tiny fleck' of what the SB in fact did, because the documentation of atrocities committed by the SB has never been rich.
Current scenario: Despite the Shanti Bahini signed a so-called ‘Peace Accord’ with the government, its leader Shantu Larma transformed the SB into the PCJSS, which was formerly the political or maternal wing of the SB, and the latter continued the former’s dirty, brutal businesses – hidden killings, extortion, intimidation, torture and kidnapping.
Furthermore, after the treaty had been signed,
a faction of the SB cadres established another organization – the UPDF – opposing the treaty, with even more extreme demands.
The UPDF is currently led by Prashit Khisha, who was formerly a member of the SB. Now both the parties – the PCJSS and the UPDF – routinely engage into armed clashes and are involved in a competition to take as much territories as possible in control. The fate of the victims – both Bengalee and the tribal communities – has not since changed significantly.
Old newspaper cutting says: 'What did the girl do wrong? Why did the Shanti Bahini murderers kill her?'
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http://cht-terrorism.blogspot.com/2014/03/photos-of-cht-genocide-committed-by-shantibahini.html
