Hill Voice, 12 June 2024, Bandarban: The Bawm community held a protest rally and human chain in Rowangchari bazar (market) of Rowangchari upazila under Bandarban district demanding to stop trouble of Kuki Chin National Front (KNF), an armed terrorist organization known as Bawm party.
On June 10, 2024 (Monday) around 9 am, the demonstration and the human chain took place at Rawangchari upazila bazar.
Speakers in the rally said, the normal life of the Bawm community in the area is being disrupted due to the increasing terrorist activities of KNF. Our mothers and sisters, young and old women do not want to be victims of your crimes. Today, most of the villages of the Bawm community are deserted. Hundreds of people are migrating. Education of school, college and varsity students is being disrupted. Normal household works, socio-economic activities, bread earnings are being hampered. The common Bawm people in the area are in an inhumane life of being hunger or half-starvation. The KNF has to take responsibility for sufferings. The main source of income for the Bawm community is fruit plantation and jum farming. Hundreds of families make a living by growing fruits. During this fruit selling season, hundreds of acres of fruits are apparently being destroyed as traders are not allowed to go to Bawm Para(village) to buy them due to unstable situation in the area for KNF terror activities.
So, our request to the KNF is, if you want peace in the society, return the looted government arms and return to normal life. Your irrational and imaginary thoughts will bring nothing but destruction, social degradation and chaos, economic destruction and harm to the Bawm people in the area.
The following demands were raised at the demonstration on behalf of the Bawm community.
(1) Immediately return the arms and ammunition looted by the KNF
(2) Stop all terrorist activities carried out by KNF.
(3) We call you to return to normal life leaving unrealistic dreams.
Notably, joint forces led by army and DGFI conducted operation against the KNF in response to robbery of 14 weapons along with money by robbing Sonali Bank branch in Ruma, and Sonali Bank and Krishi Bank branches in Thanchi on April 2 and 3 consecutively by the KNF.
It is the most worth mentioning that, the KNF was created by the army as a part conspiracy of forming armed terrorist groups one after another in the CHT to thwart the movement for the implementation process of the CHT Accord and establish divide and rule of colonial policy. Later, when the news of sheltering and military training by KNF to Islamic militant groups was leaked in exchange of money, the army and Bangladesh government were forced to conduct military operations against the arms holders KNF under international pressure. As a result, the peaceful environment of the CHT has deteriorated day by day.
