ConflictBarometer_2016

ASIA AND OCEANIA
BANGLADESH (CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS)
Intensity: 3 | Change: | Start: 1971
BANGLADESH (ISLAMIST GROUPS)
Intensity: 3 | Change: | Start: 1971
Conflict parties:
Conflict items:
Bengali settlers vs. PCJSS, UDPF, Jummas
vs. government
autonomy, subnational predominance,
resources
Conflict parties: Hindus, Christians, Buddhists vs. et
al., IS, HuJI-B, HuT, JMB, AAI, ABT vs.
government
Conflict items: system/ideology, subnational predominance
The violent crisis over autonomy, subnational predominance
and arable land in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) between
indigenous Jumma militant groups, on the one hand, and the
government and Bengali settlers, on the other, continued.
The Jumma militants, mainly organized in two wings, the Parbatya
Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS) and United
People's Democratic Front (UDPF), reinforced their demand
for the implementation of the 1997 CHT Peace Accord that
granted autonomy to the districts Khagrachari, Rangamati
and Bandarban in Chittagong division. Throughout the year,
they repeatedly clashed with Bengali settlers. On April 15, for
instance, two Jummas kidnapped and killed three cattle businessmen.
After their dead bodies had been found by police
on April 18, Bengali settlers took out for protest and beat up
two Jummas in Alikadam, Banderban district. Violence related
to the countywide conducted municipal elections erupted
also in Chittagong [ → Bangladesh (opposition)]. UDPF, for instance,
rejected the election results of Kobakhali Union after
voting irregularities, intimidation, blocking of voting centers,
and alleged attacks against Jumma people by Bengali settlers
and army soldiers on April 23 in Khagrachari district. During
the attacks, several Jumma had been injured.
In the course of the year, Jumma groups demanded the full
implementation of the Peace Accord. On May 8, Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina announced to reduce military presence
in the region to four brigades. However, this was not implemented
by the end of the year.
On May 31, an unknown assailant killed the Information and
Publicity Secretary of the PCJSS. The police detained a friend
of the deceased as a murder suspect. PCJSS, however, alleged
that the killing was supported by the ruling Awami
League. On August 1, the government approved the draft
for the Chittagong Hill Tracts Land Dispute Resolution Commission
(Amendment) Act, which obliges the chairman of
the commission to make decisions based on the majority
vote of members in a meeting. Bengali settlers opposed the
amendment, stating that it would evict them from their land.
Subsequently, Bengali groups organized general strikes on
September 4 and October 12 in all three CHT districts, demanding
the withdrawal of the act. In a written statement,
Santu Larma, leader of the PCJSS, criticized the government
for inhibiting a full implementation of the Peace Accord on
December 1, one day before its 19th anniversary. pso
The violent crisis over ideology and the orientation of the political
system as well as religious predominance between radical
Muslims, mainly organized in Islamist groups, the government,
and religious minorities, such as Hindus, Buddhists, and
Christians, continued on a violent level.
Since the so-called Islamic State (IS) had claimed to start operating
in Bangladesh in September 2015, the number of
attacks against individuals belonging to minority groups increased.
In the course of the year, IS claimed responsibility
for killing at least 42 people, among them 21 foreigners,
eight Hindus, four security forces, three Christians, three
Shias, two Buddhists, one Sufi and one professor for his secular
remarks in the Divisions Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi
and Rangpur and Sylhet [→ Syria, Iraq et al. (IS)].
The government and the police, however, continued to deny
any activity of international terrorist organisations, such as IS
or al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) in Bangladesh.
Instead, it blamed local Islamist groups, like the Jamaat-ul-
Mujahideen (JMB) and Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT) as well as the opposition
for the violence [→Bangladesh (opposition)].
Representatives of minority groups and several civil society
organizations continued to criticize the attacks against minority
members and their religious sites by staging protests
throughout the year.
For instance, Ansar al-Islam (AAI), an alleged of AQIS claimed
responsibility for killing a student who expressed secular
opinions in the capital Dhaka, eponymous division, on April 6,
and for assassinating a LGBT activist and his friend in the capital
on April 25. On July 1, IS claimed to have carried out its so
far most fatal attack in Bangladesh. Five assailants, equipped
with crude bombs, firearms and a sword stormed a restaurant
in Dhaka and took the foreign guests as hostages. In an ensuing
gunfight with police, two policemen were killed. Hours
later, security forces stormed the cafe. In total, 29 people
died, among them 20 hostages, most of them foreigners, five
attackers, two policemen, and two café staff members while
over 30 were injured. The government denied any involvement
of IS and arrested JMB members in relation with the attack
instead.
In response to the ongoing violence, security forces launched
several nationwide operations in the course of which more
than 40 militants, mainly of JMB, were killed. On June 10,
for instance, police started a nationwide crackdown arresting
around 166 suspected militants and around 1,100 others in
connection with the recent killings in the course of a week. On
July 26, police killed nine and wounded one JMB militant in
a gunfight in Kalyanpur, Dhaka. The militants were suspected
to plot another major attack.
In the course of the year, incidences of attacks on Hindu com-
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