Staff Reporter :Five alleged insurgents were killed in a pre-dawn military operation in the remote hilly area of Rupkari under Baghaichhari upazila in Rangamati district of Chittagong Hill Tracts in the country’s southeast part on Saturday. Of the five victims, one was identified as Rupayan Chakama. Identity of others could not be known immediately. Army Corporal Liakat Ali was injured during the shootout. He was rushed to Combined Military Hospital in Chittagong by a military helicopter.The army also detained three suspected rebels and recovered seven automatic weapons along with 513 rounds of high-velocity bullets and huge number of army uniforms from the spot.”Of the arms, there are one pistol, one SMG, two Chinese rifles, and three SLR, and 513 rounds of bullet. All of the people killed in the gunfight were in military uniform,” Commanding Officer of Baghaihat Zone of Army, Lieutenant Colonel Ali Haider Siddique, said.”The armed men were hiding in the house of one Binayjyoti Chakma and tried to use his family members as human shield. But careful firing by army men avoided casualty of any innocent people. Other members of the 20-men group managed to flee. We are conducting hunt to catch them,” he said. Elaborating the operation, Major Rubaiat Jamil said, “The gun fight erupted between military men and a group of armed peopled when the army commandos raided a den of suspected members of Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti [Manabendra Narayan Larma] at the remote hilly area of Bara Adam at Baghaicharat about 4:15am.” “As they opened fire on the soldiers, the military retaliated that triggered an hour-long gunfight. The army also arrested three activists from the spot,” he said.”Five persons were killed in an exchange of fires between the army troops and suspected insurgent members in the morning,’ Superintendent of Police [SP] in Rangamati Sayeed Tariqul Hasan, said. Officer-in-Charge of Baghaichari Police Station M Zakir Hossain said that police recovered the bodies and sent them to hospital for autopsy. Meanwhile, the army claimed that the dead rebels were members of United People’s Democratic Front [UPDF] and JSS MNL group. The organizations, however, denied the allegation, saying that none of their members were entangled in arms struggle with security forces.”As per out intelligence gathering, the dead rebels were members of United People’s Democratic Front [UPDF] and PCJSS [MN Larma group], both groups are widely known as reformist and against the CHT Peace Treaty,” C O Lieutenant Colonel Ali Haider Siddique said. But refuting the claim, PCJSS [MN Larma] leader Prashanta Chakma said that their party had no armed members so there was no chance for the gunfight victims to be member of the party. The JSS MN Larma is an offshoot of a former rebel group which fought a decades-long battle for a tribal homeland in the Chittagong Hill Tracts before signing the peace deal with the government in 1997.On the other hand, chief of information department of UPDF Niron Chakma said, “The dead were not members of our organization. We have no armed members.”Echoing the same, organizer of UPDF Rangamati district unit Sajal Chakma said, “None of our members were involved with the gun battle.”
