KALPANA CHAKMA WILL NEVER DIE: MAKE THE INQUIRY REPORT
PUBLIC
By Mithun Chakma, General Secretary, Democratic Youth
Forum
FLASH BACK
On the night of 11 June, 1996. Scene: New Lalyaghona
village, Marishya, Rangamati. Barely 7/8 hours were to
go before the voting for the seventh National
Parliamentary Elections began. Earlier in the day
Kalpana Chakma had taken part in exhaustive election
campaign for her candidate. She felt tired and soon
dipped into a deep sleep. What was she dreaming in her
sleep? A dream dreamt by each and every Jumma? A
sudden, shrill and harsh voice made her awoke: "Who
are in the house? Come out." In pure Bangla the voice
spoke. It was past midnight, about 1.30 a.m. to be
exact. The sounds of the boots of the soldiers were
tearing the stillness of the night apart.
Mrs. Bandhuni Chakma, Kalpana Chakma's widowed mother,
got out of the bed and opened the door, her whole body
trembling in fear. Then one by one came out: Kalpana
Chakma, her two brothers, Khudhiram and Kalindi Kumar,
and Kalindi Kumar's wife. The house was surrounded by
the marauding soldiers so that no one could escape. A
soldier flashed a torch on their faces and Kalindi
Kumar recognized Lt. Ferdous, who had visited their
house a few days back, and two VDP (Village Defence
Party) members - Nurul Haqe and Salah Ahmed. Amnesty
International in an Urgent Action issued on 1st July
wrote: "Six or seven security personnel in
plainclothes, believed to be from Ugalchari army camp
(actually Lieut. Ferdous was commander of Kojoichari
Army camp), are reported to have entered the home of
Kalpana Chakma in New Lallyaghona village, Rangamati
district in the early hours of 12 June. Kalpana Chakma
and two of her brothers were forcibly taken from their
home, blindfolded and with their hands tied."
What happened after that? Members of the Ain -o-
Salish Kendra (ASK), a Bangladeshi human rights
organisation, visited the place of occurrence after
the incident. In their report they said, “They (army)
took Khudiram near a lake and told him to step into
the lake. As soon as he went down in the lake, there
was an order to fire bullet on him. Out of fear
Khudiram took shelter in the water and with a fearful
swimming of some minutes he managed to take shelter in
the house of one neighbour called Lamba, but without
clothes in his body. The armed personnel fired at him
but he managed to flee without being hurt. In the
meantime the armed personnel took Kalpana Chakma and
her brother Kalindi Kumar blindfolded. After hearing
the firing he (Kalindi Kumar) tried to run to flee
from them, and he managed. When he was fleeing he
heard two firings and heard that his sister Kalpana
Chakma was screaming.” In an interview Kalicharan
(Kalindi Kumar) said “They shot at me and when I ran I
could hear Kalpana crying out ‘Dah Dah Mare Baja"
(Brother, brother save me!).
Dear readers, please don't mistake it for a
Shakespearean tragedy. It's real life in Chittagong
Hill Tracts.
WHY WAS SHE ABDUCTED?
Kalpana Chakma is a combination of an indigenous
political activist, a women leader and a human rights
defender. She was the organising secretary of the Hill
Women's Federation, a platform for the Jumma women in
Chittagong Hill Tracts. She is an excellent organiser
and played a very important role in organising its
first central conference in Khagrachari in 1995. The
Daily Star reporter Morshed Ali Khan, who visited
Kalpana Chakma's house after the incident, wrote:
‘Local youth said that Kalpana, a student of BA at the
local college, was always a strong and vocal activist
for the cause of the Chakma people and she regularly
attended conferences, discussions at the national
level and played a prominent role in this respect’.
KALPANA CHAKMA WILL NEVER DIE: MAKE THE INQUIRY REPORT
PUBLIC
By Mithun Chakma, General Secretary, Democratic Youth
Forum
FLASH BACK
On the night of 11 June, 1996. Scene: New Lalyaghona
village, Marishya, Rangamati. Barely 7/8 hours were to
go before the voting for the seventh National
Parliamentary Elections began. Earlier in the day
Kalpana Chakma had taken part in exhaustive election
campaign for her candidate. She felt tired and soon
dipped into a deep sleep. What was she dreaming in her
sleep? A dream dreamt by each and every Jumma? A
sudden, shrill and harsh voice made her awoke: "Who
are in the house? Come out." In pure Bangla the voice
spoke. It was past midnight, about 1.30 a.m. to be
exact. The sounds of the boots of the soldiers were
tearing the stillness of the night apart.
Mrs. Bandhuni Chakma, Kalpana Chakma's widowed mother,
got out of the bed and opened the door, her whole body
trembling in fear. Then one by one came out: Kalpana
Chakma, her two brothers, Khudhiram and Kalindi Kumar,
and Kalindi Kumar's wife. The house was surrounded by
the marauding soldiers so that no one could escape. A
soldier flashed a torch on their faces and Kalindi
Kumar recognized Lt. Ferdous, who had visited their
house a few days back, and two VDP (Village Defence
Party) members - Nurul Haqe and Salah Ahmed. Amnesty
International in an Urgent Action issued on 1st July
wrote: "Six or seven security personnel in
plainclothes, believed to be from Ugalchari army camp
(actually Lieut. Ferdous was commander of Kojoichari
Army camp), are reported to have entered the home of
Kalpana Chakma in New Lallyaghona village, Rangamati
district in the early hours of 12 June. Kalpana Chakma
and two of her brothers were forcibly taken from their
home, blindfolded and with their hands tied."
What happened after that? Members of the Ain -o-
Salish Kendra (ASK), a Bangladeshi human rights
organisation, visited the place of occurrence after
the incident. In their report they said, “They (army)
took Khudiram near a lake and told him to step into
the lake. As soon as he went down in the lake, there
was an order to fire bullet on him. Out of fear
Khudiram took shelter in the water and with a fearful
swimming of some minutes he managed to take shelter in
the house of one neighbour called Lamba, but without
clothes in his body. The armed personnel fired at him
but he managed to flee without being hurt. In the
meantime the armed personnel took Kalpana Chakma and
her brother Kalindi Kumar blindfolded. After hearing
the firing he (Kalindi Kumar) tried to run to flee
from them, and he managed. When he was fleeing he
heard two firings and heard that his sister Kalpana
Chakma was screaming.” In an interview Kalicharan
(Kalindi Kumar) said “They shot at me and when I ran I
could hear Kalpana crying out ‘Dah Dah Mare Baja"
(Brother, brother save me!).
Dear readers, please don't mistake it for a
Shakespearean tragedy. It's real life in Chittagong
Hill Tracts.
WHY WAS SHE ABDUCTED?
Kalpana Chakma is a combination of an indigenous
political activist, a women leader and a human rights
defender. She was the organising secretary of the Hill
Women's Federation, a platform for the Jumma women in
Chittagong Hill Tracts. She is an excellent organiser
and played a very important role in organising its
first central conference in Khagrachari in 1995. The
Daily Star reporter Morshed Ali Khan, who visited
Kalpana Chakma's house after the incident, wrote:
‘Local youth said that Kalpana, a student of BA at the
local college, was always a strong and vocal activist
for the cause of the Chakma people and she regularly
attended conferences, discussions at the national
level and played a prominent role in this respect’.
On 19th March 1996, an incident occurred in Kalpana’s
village. ASK in its report said, ‘Villagers told us
that on 19th March1996, 7 Chakma houses were burned
and villagers were abused by the Bengal Regiment’. On
23 July the Janakantha, a Bengali language daily
published from Dhaka, quoted a Hill Students Council
leader saying "Kalpana Chakma vehemently protested
against the incident." He told the Janakantha that
Kalpana Chakma squarely blamed the army officer for
the arson attack and entered into a heated debate with
him. He expressed the fear that she might have been
kidnapped because of that debate. The army officer who
had burned down the Chakma houses and with whom
Kalpana Chakma exchanged heated words was none other
than Lt. Ferdous himself. This took place at Kalpana
Chakma's house few days before her abduction.
Amnesty International believes her abduction has
something to do with the parliamentary election in
which Kalpana Chakma had taken part as a campaigner
for an independent candidate. Amnesty wrote, ‘It has
been suggested that her abduction may have been linked
to her support of a candidate representing the
interests of indigenous people in the parliamentary
elections that took place in Bangladesh on June12.’
PROTESTS
Storms of protest swept the CHT. In Marishya, Kalpana
Chakma's home county, general strike was observed.
While the Jummas supported the programme whole
heartedly, some sections of the Bengali settlers
attacked a rally of the picketers and shot dead
16-year old Rupon Chakma. The settlers also hacked to
dead Sukesh Chakma, Monotosh Chakma and Samar Chakma,
who were on their way to Baghaichari bazaar to take
part in the picketing.
Protests were also held in other parts of the country
including capital Dhaka. On 27 June 1996, HWF staged a
symbolic hunger strike in front of the national press
club in Dhaka. Mass rallies were also organised by the
National Committee for the Protection of Fundamental
Rights in CHT. All the progressive political parties
and human and civil rights organisations of the
country joined the protest. The role of the print
media was impressive. Because of their unstinted
support, the incident could attract national and
international attention. Here we mention some
newspaper headlines published at the time on Kalpana
Chakma.
The daily star: 1 July: DU students urge govt. to
rescue Kalpana Chakma; 5 July
Abduction of Kalpana Chakma: Home Ministry probe
demanded; The Independent: 15 July, 1996: 12 human
rights bodies call to rescue Kalpana Chakma; Bhorer
Kagoj: 6 July: Hill Women’s Federation rally: It is a
mystery that there is no govt. effort to rescue
Kalpana; Janakantha: 21 July, 1996: Editorial: rescue
Kalpana; Bhorer Kagoj: 23 July, 1996: Demands for
discussion on Kalpana in Parliament; Sangbad: 19
august, 1996:
Kalpana’s mother tells: HR Commission lying, I want my
daughter back.
ATTEMPT TO COVER UP
From the very beginning, there was an attempt to cover
up the incident. Initially, the army termed the
incident as a 'love affair". However, they backtracked
later on and flatly denied army's involvement in the
abduction. When they failed to sweep the incident
under the rug, they launched a vicious disinformation
campaign. The Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission in its
report Life is Not Ours, update 3, said that an NGO
named Bangladesh Human Rights Commission on 15th
August 1996 at a press conference declared that
Kalpana Chakma had been seen in the Tripura state of
India and that she herself plotted the abduction
incident. Agartala based Humanity Protection Forum
investigated the accusation in the area and by
interviewing many peoples they had come to the
decision that the statement of Bangladesh Human Rights
Commission is totally baseless and false. Kalpana
Chakma’s mother also in a press conference rejected
the BHRC’s statement and termed it as a `blatant lie’.
In a 9-page lengthy press release the Army's 24th
infantry Division, which is responsible for
coordinating the so-called counter-insurgency
operations in CHT, displayed its mastery over cooking
up stories. It questioned the authenticity of the
claim that Kalpana Chakma was kidnapped and suggested
that she might be hiding somewhere on her own accord
to support the unholy efforts of the Shanti Bahini and
to embarrass the government. In the same press
statement, the army claimed that Kalpana Chakma had
been trying to participate in the International
Women's conference in Beijing and that she might have
secretly left the country using her international
passport. The 24th Infantry Division also dropped
leaflets from helicopters announcing a reward of Taka
50,000 for information about the whereabouts of
Kalpana Chakma.
However, the Jumma people's organisations such as Hill
Peoples Council, Hill Student's Council and Hill
Women's Federation rejected the statement of the 24th
Infantry Division and demanded that the government
steps up efforts to find out Kalpana Chakma. They
refuted the claims made in the statement with forceful
and logical arguments thus frustrating its nefarious
attempt to create confusion about the kidnapping.
CONTROVERSIAL ISSUE?
Yet to the great surprise of all, the most damaging
remark about the abduction of Kalpana Chakma was made
by former guerrilla leader and Jana Samhati Samiti
president Santu Larma. When, after the closing of the
surrendering ceremony at Khagrachari stadium on 10
February 1998, the media persons asked him to comment
on the abduction of Kalpana Chakma and Logang
massacre, he said "these are all controversial
issues". (Daily Janakantha, 11 February 1998). It is
still an enigma as to why Mr. Larma had to put his
reputation at stake by making such a comment. Whatever
may be the reasons, the later events have turned out
that it is Mr. Larma who has become the most
controversial figure in the contemporary political
history of the CHT.
PROBE COMMITTEE
After months of protests and mounting international
condemnation, the government on 7 September 1996
constituted a three-member inquiry committee headed by
Justice Abdul Jalil. The other members are Sawkat
Hossain, Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong and Dr.
Anupam Sen, professor of Chittagong University.
The committee is reported to have submitted its
findings to the Ministry of Home Affairs a couple of
years ago, but the government is yet to make it
public. After the incident Kalpana Chakma's brother
Kalindi Kumar Chakma filed an FIR with the Baghaichari
police station. (Case number 12/6/1996#2). There is
allegation that the officer-in-charge registered the
FIR after dropping the army from it. Even then, the
police never acted on this FIR.
DOES LAW TURN ITS OWN COURSE?
When the members of the ASK Team asked whether Kalpana
will be rescued, the then DC of Rangmati District
replied, "Law will take its own course" and "Police
are investigating” After eleven years, the law seems
to have lost its course. The inquiry report has never
seen the light of the day and the culprits roam
scot-free. Lt. Ferdous, the mastermind behind the
kidnapping, is reported to have been promoted to the
rank of Major and posted back to Karengatoli army
camp, not far from Kalpana Chakma's village New
Lalyaghona. This amounts to an indigestible affront to
the human rights organisations and to those who
supported the demand that Lt. Ferdous should be
brought to justice.
CONCLUSION: MAKE THE REPORT PUBLIC
The present caretaker government of Dr. Fakruddin
Ahmed has taken many commendable actions to clear the
mess that was created by the previous partisan
governments. With regard to the Chittagong Hill
Tracts, it has not yet taken any major steps, apart
from withdrawing a few base camps, taking decision to
call the meeting of the CHT Ministry's advisory
committee and to reactivate the Task Force on the
rehabilitation of the Jumma refugees. We hope the
government would take a bold step to make the inquiry
report on disappearance of Kalpana Chakma public.
Making the report public does not require any money or
hard work. What it needs is just a decision. That's
all.
PUBLIC
By Mithun Chakma, General Secretary, Democratic Youth
Forum
FLASH BACK
On the night of 11 June, 1996. Scene: New Lalyaghona
village, Marishya, Rangamati. Barely 7/8 hours were to
go before the voting for the seventh National
Parliamentary Elections began. Earlier in the day
Kalpana Chakma had taken part in exhaustive election
campaign for her candidate. She felt tired and soon
dipped into a deep sleep. What was she dreaming in her
sleep? A dream dreamt by each and every Jumma? A
sudden, shrill and harsh voice made her awoke: "Who
are in the house? Come out." In pure Bangla the voice
spoke. It was past midnight, about 1.30 a.m. to be
exact. The sounds of the boots of the soldiers were
tearing the stillness of the night apart.
Mrs. Bandhuni Chakma, Kalpana Chakma's widowed mother,
got out of the bed and opened the door, her whole body
trembling in fear. Then one by one came out: Kalpana
Chakma, her two brothers, Khudhiram and Kalindi Kumar,
and Kalindi Kumar's wife. The house was surrounded by
the marauding soldiers so that no one could escape. A
soldier flashed a torch on their faces and Kalindi
Kumar recognized Lt. Ferdous, who had visited their
house a few days back, and two VDP (Village Defence
Party) members - Nurul Haqe and Salah Ahmed. Amnesty
International in an Urgent Action issued on 1st July
wrote: "Six or seven security personnel in
plainclothes, believed to be from Ugalchari army camp
(actually Lieut. Ferdous was commander of Kojoichari
Army camp), are reported to have entered the home of
Kalpana Chakma in New Lallyaghona village, Rangamati
district in the early hours of 12 June. Kalpana Chakma
and two of her brothers were forcibly taken from their
home, blindfolded and with their hands tied."
What happened after that? Members of the Ain -o-
Salish Kendra (ASK), a Bangladeshi human rights
organisation, visited the place of occurrence after
the incident. In their report they said, “They (army)
took Khudiram near a lake and told him to step into
the lake. As soon as he went down in the lake, there
was an order to fire bullet on him. Out of fear
Khudiram took shelter in the water and with a fearful
swimming of some minutes he managed to take shelter in
the house of one neighbour called Lamba, but without
clothes in his body. The armed personnel fired at him
but he managed to flee without being hurt. In the
meantime the armed personnel took Kalpana Chakma and
her brother Kalindi Kumar blindfolded. After hearing
the firing he (Kalindi Kumar) tried to run to flee
from them, and he managed. When he was fleeing he
heard two firings and heard that his sister Kalpana
Chakma was screaming.” In an interview Kalicharan
(Kalindi Kumar) said “They shot at me and when I ran I
could hear Kalpana crying out ‘Dah Dah Mare Baja"
(Brother, brother save me!).
Dear readers, please don't mistake it for a
Shakespearean tragedy. It's real life in Chittagong
Hill Tracts.
WHY WAS SHE ABDUCTED?
Kalpana Chakma is a combination of an indigenous
political activist, a women leader and a human rights
defender. She was the organising secretary of the Hill
Women's Federation, a platform for the Jumma women in
Chittagong Hill Tracts. She is an excellent organiser
and played a very important role in organising its
first central conference in Khagrachari in 1995. The
Daily Star reporter Morshed Ali Khan, who visited
Kalpana Chakma's house after the incident, wrote:
‘Local youth said that Kalpana, a student of BA at the
local college, was always a strong and vocal activist
for the cause of the Chakma people and she regularly
attended conferences, discussions at the national
level and played a prominent role in this respect’.
KALPANA CHAKMA WILL NEVER DIE: MAKE THE INQUIRY REPORT
PUBLIC
By Mithun Chakma, General Secretary, Democratic Youth
Forum
FLASH BACK
On the night of 11 June, 1996. Scene: New Lalyaghona
village, Marishya, Rangamati. Barely 7/8 hours were to
go before the voting for the seventh National
Parliamentary Elections began. Earlier in the day
Kalpana Chakma had taken part in exhaustive election
campaign for her candidate. She felt tired and soon
dipped into a deep sleep. What was she dreaming in her
sleep? A dream dreamt by each and every Jumma? A
sudden, shrill and harsh voice made her awoke: "Who
are in the house? Come out." In pure Bangla the voice
spoke. It was past midnight, about 1.30 a.m. to be
exact. The sounds of the boots of the soldiers were
tearing the stillness of the night apart.
Mrs. Bandhuni Chakma, Kalpana Chakma's widowed mother,
got out of the bed and opened the door, her whole body
trembling in fear. Then one by one came out: Kalpana
Chakma, her two brothers, Khudhiram and Kalindi Kumar,
and Kalindi Kumar's wife. The house was surrounded by
the marauding soldiers so that no one could escape. A
soldier flashed a torch on their faces and Kalindi
Kumar recognized Lt. Ferdous, who had visited their
house a few days back, and two VDP (Village Defence
Party) members - Nurul Haqe and Salah Ahmed. Amnesty
International in an Urgent Action issued on 1st July
wrote: "Six or seven security personnel in
plainclothes, believed to be from Ugalchari army camp
(actually Lieut. Ferdous was commander of Kojoichari
Army camp), are reported to have entered the home of
Kalpana Chakma in New Lallyaghona village, Rangamati
district in the early hours of 12 June. Kalpana Chakma
and two of her brothers were forcibly taken from their
home, blindfolded and with their hands tied."
What happened after that? Members of the Ain -o-
Salish Kendra (ASK), a Bangladeshi human rights
organisation, visited the place of occurrence after
the incident. In their report they said, “They (army)
took Khudiram near a lake and told him to step into
the lake. As soon as he went down in the lake, there
was an order to fire bullet on him. Out of fear
Khudiram took shelter in the water and with a fearful
swimming of some minutes he managed to take shelter in
the house of one neighbour called Lamba, but without
clothes in his body. The armed personnel fired at him
but he managed to flee without being hurt. In the
meantime the armed personnel took Kalpana Chakma and
her brother Kalindi Kumar blindfolded. After hearing
the firing he (Kalindi Kumar) tried to run to flee
from them, and he managed. When he was fleeing he
heard two firings and heard that his sister Kalpana
Chakma was screaming.” In an interview Kalicharan
(Kalindi Kumar) said “They shot at me and when I ran I
could hear Kalpana crying out ‘Dah Dah Mare Baja"
(Brother, brother save me!).
Dear readers, please don't mistake it for a
Shakespearean tragedy. It's real life in Chittagong
Hill Tracts.
WHY WAS SHE ABDUCTED?
Kalpana Chakma is a combination of an indigenous
political activist, a women leader and a human rights
defender. She was the organising secretary of the Hill
Women's Federation, a platform for the Jumma women in
Chittagong Hill Tracts. She is an excellent organiser
and played a very important role in organising its
first central conference in Khagrachari in 1995. The
Daily Star reporter Morshed Ali Khan, who visited
Kalpana Chakma's house after the incident, wrote:
‘Local youth said that Kalpana, a student of BA at the
local college, was always a strong and vocal activist
for the cause of the Chakma people and she regularly
attended conferences, discussions at the national
level and played a prominent role in this respect’.
On 19th March 1996, an incident occurred in Kalpana’s
village. ASK in its report said, ‘Villagers told us
that on 19th March1996, 7 Chakma houses were burned
and villagers were abused by the Bengal Regiment’. On
23 July the Janakantha, a Bengali language daily
published from Dhaka, quoted a Hill Students Council
leader saying "Kalpana Chakma vehemently protested
against the incident." He told the Janakantha that
Kalpana Chakma squarely blamed the army officer for
the arson attack and entered into a heated debate with
him. He expressed the fear that she might have been
kidnapped because of that debate. The army officer who
had burned down the Chakma houses and with whom
Kalpana Chakma exchanged heated words was none other
than Lt. Ferdous himself. This took place at Kalpana
Chakma's house few days before her abduction.
Amnesty International believes her abduction has
something to do with the parliamentary election in
which Kalpana Chakma had taken part as a campaigner
for an independent candidate. Amnesty wrote, ‘It has
been suggested that her abduction may have been linked
to her support of a candidate representing the
interests of indigenous people in the parliamentary
elections that took place in Bangladesh on June12.’
PROTESTS
Storms of protest swept the CHT. In Marishya, Kalpana
Chakma's home county, general strike was observed.
While the Jummas supported the programme whole
heartedly, some sections of the Bengali settlers
attacked a rally of the picketers and shot dead
16-year old Rupon Chakma. The settlers also hacked to
dead Sukesh Chakma, Monotosh Chakma and Samar Chakma,
who were on their way to Baghaichari bazaar to take
part in the picketing.
Protests were also held in other parts of the country
including capital Dhaka. On 27 June 1996, HWF staged a
symbolic hunger strike in front of the national press
club in Dhaka. Mass rallies were also organised by the
National Committee for the Protection of Fundamental
Rights in CHT. All the progressive political parties
and human and civil rights organisations of the
country joined the protest. The role of the print
media was impressive. Because of their unstinted
support, the incident could attract national and
international attention. Here we mention some
newspaper headlines published at the time on Kalpana
Chakma.
The daily star: 1 July: DU students urge govt. to
rescue Kalpana Chakma; 5 July
Abduction of Kalpana Chakma: Home Ministry probe
demanded; The Independent: 15 July, 1996: 12 human
rights bodies call to rescue Kalpana Chakma; Bhorer
Kagoj: 6 July: Hill Women’s Federation rally: It is a
mystery that there is no govt. effort to rescue
Kalpana; Janakantha: 21 July, 1996: Editorial: rescue
Kalpana; Bhorer Kagoj: 23 July, 1996: Demands for
discussion on Kalpana in Parliament; Sangbad: 19
august, 1996:
Kalpana’s mother tells: HR Commission lying, I want my
daughter back.
ATTEMPT TO COVER UP
From the very beginning, there was an attempt to cover
up the incident. Initially, the army termed the
incident as a 'love affair". However, they backtracked
later on and flatly denied army's involvement in the
abduction. When they failed to sweep the incident
under the rug, they launched a vicious disinformation
campaign. The Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission in its
report Life is Not Ours, update 3, said that an NGO
named Bangladesh Human Rights Commission on 15th
August 1996 at a press conference declared that
Kalpana Chakma had been seen in the Tripura state of
India and that she herself plotted the abduction
incident. Agartala based Humanity Protection Forum
investigated the accusation in the area and by
interviewing many peoples they had come to the
decision that the statement of Bangladesh Human Rights
Commission is totally baseless and false. Kalpana
Chakma’s mother also in a press conference rejected
the BHRC’s statement and termed it as a `blatant lie’.
In a 9-page lengthy press release the Army's 24th
infantry Division, which is responsible for
coordinating the so-called counter-insurgency
operations in CHT, displayed its mastery over cooking
up stories. It questioned the authenticity of the
claim that Kalpana Chakma was kidnapped and suggested
that she might be hiding somewhere on her own accord
to support the unholy efforts of the Shanti Bahini and
to embarrass the government. In the same press
statement, the army claimed that Kalpana Chakma had
been trying to participate in the International
Women's conference in Beijing and that she might have
secretly left the country using her international
passport. The 24th Infantry Division also dropped
leaflets from helicopters announcing a reward of Taka
50,000 for information about the whereabouts of
Kalpana Chakma.
However, the Jumma people's organisations such as Hill
Peoples Council, Hill Student's Council and Hill
Women's Federation rejected the statement of the 24th
Infantry Division and demanded that the government
steps up efforts to find out Kalpana Chakma. They
refuted the claims made in the statement with forceful
and logical arguments thus frustrating its nefarious
attempt to create confusion about the kidnapping.
CONTROVERSIAL ISSUE?
Yet to the great surprise of all, the most damaging
remark about the abduction of Kalpana Chakma was made
by former guerrilla leader and Jana Samhati Samiti
president Santu Larma. When, after the closing of the
surrendering ceremony at Khagrachari stadium on 10
February 1998, the media persons asked him to comment
on the abduction of Kalpana Chakma and Logang
massacre, he said "these are all controversial
issues". (Daily Janakantha, 11 February 1998). It is
still an enigma as to why Mr. Larma had to put his
reputation at stake by making such a comment. Whatever
may be the reasons, the later events have turned out
that it is Mr. Larma who has become the most
controversial figure in the contemporary political
history of the CHT.
PROBE COMMITTEE
After months of protests and mounting international
condemnation, the government on 7 September 1996
constituted a three-member inquiry committee headed by
Justice Abdul Jalil. The other members are Sawkat
Hossain, Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong and Dr.
Anupam Sen, professor of Chittagong University.
The committee is reported to have submitted its
findings to the Ministry of Home Affairs a couple of
years ago, but the government is yet to make it
public. After the incident Kalpana Chakma's brother
Kalindi Kumar Chakma filed an FIR with the Baghaichari
police station. (Case number 12/6/1996#2). There is
allegation that the officer-in-charge registered the
FIR after dropping the army from it. Even then, the
police never acted on this FIR.
DOES LAW TURN ITS OWN COURSE?
When the members of the ASK Team asked whether Kalpana
will be rescued, the then DC of Rangmati District
replied, "Law will take its own course" and "Police
are investigating” After eleven years, the law seems
to have lost its course. The inquiry report has never
seen the light of the day and the culprits roam
scot-free. Lt. Ferdous, the mastermind behind the
kidnapping, is reported to have been promoted to the
rank of Major and posted back to Karengatoli army
camp, not far from Kalpana Chakma's village New
Lalyaghona. This amounts to an indigestible affront to
the human rights organisations and to those who
supported the demand that Lt. Ferdous should be
brought to justice.
CONCLUSION: MAKE THE REPORT PUBLIC
The present caretaker government of Dr. Fakruddin
Ahmed has taken many commendable actions to clear the
mess that was created by the previous partisan
governments. With regard to the Chittagong Hill
Tracts, it has not yet taken any major steps, apart
from withdrawing a few base camps, taking decision to
call the meeting of the CHT Ministry's advisory
committee and to reactivate the Task Force on the
rehabilitation of the Jumma refugees. We hope the
government would take a bold step to make the inquiry
report on disappearance of Kalpana Chakma public.
Making the report public does not require any money or
hard work. What it needs is just a decision. That's
all.
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