Local political parties, especially activists of the Parbattya Chattogram Jana Sanghati Samiti (PCJSS), in the Chattogram Hill Tracts (CHT) are planning to create instability in the hills to establish their supremacy in the area, according to an intelligence report sent to the home ministry recently. A number of members of the PCJSS are undergoing arms training at Salangchori of Bilaichori in Rangamati district and plan to attack government infrastructure in the district, the report said.

One of leaders of the armed group of the PCJSS and a former chairman of Ruma upazila are training members of the PCJSS, the report claimed. According to the report, the local armed groups drawn up plans to attack government infrastructure in Sajek, Baghaichhari, Rangamati, and Ruma in Bandarban. The intelligence report has requested the authorities concerned to take steps to check any such occurrence.

When contacted, a senior official of the Public Security Division of the home ministry told The Independent that they have alerted law enforcement and intelligence agencies to take steps to check any subversive activities by local armed groups in the hills. “In the name of local political parties, some local people are involved in extortion, snatching, and abducting in the area. For this, the image of the local political parties is being tarnished,” he said.

The official requested local political parties to take steps so that the armed groups do not commit any crime in the name of local political parties in the hills. When contacted over telephone, a leader of the PCJSS told this correspondent that members of the local political parties in the CHT are not involved in any terror activities.

sHe claimed that some government agencies are trying to carry out propaganda to divert the attention of the local people from the movement demanding implementation of the CHT peace accord. “Yes, we want peace in the hills. We will never tolerate if anyone uses our name and commits any crime in the CHT,” the PCJSS leader added.

Sources in intelligence and law enforcement agencies said a number of sophisticated weapons, such as AK-22 automatic rifles, G-3 rifles, MK-11 rifles, AK-47, AK-56, and M-16 rifles, have been seized from local terrorist groups in the last few years.

Some members of the local political parties—the United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF), UPDF (democratic), PCJSS, and Parbattya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti (Reformist)—have been arrested by law enforcement agencies for smuggling and keeping sophisticated arms.