Three killed in clash between Bangladeshi tribals

RANGAMATI, Bangladesh (Reuters) – Three tribal people died
in a gunbattle between rival groups on the anniversary of a
treaty that ended a 25-year insurgency in Bangladesh’s
southeastern Chittagong Hill Tracts, police said on Saturday.

They said those killed in the battle on Friday were
activists of the United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF), which
opposed the peace treaty signed in 1997 between the Shanti
Bahini insurgents and the Bangladesh government.

The treaty restored peace in the 14,200 sq. km (5,500 sq.
miles) hill and forest region bordering India and Myanmar.

Nearly 10,000 people had been killed and thousands of
families fled their homes in the insurgency, officials said.

Though most people in the Hill Tracts hailed the peace
treaty, small groups of former tribal guerillas did not
surrender weapons and kept attacking peace supporters.

“The UPDF blamed Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samilty
(PCJSS), that signed the peace treaty, for Friday’s killings,”
a Hill Tracts police officer said.

PCJSS denied the allegation and blamed the violence on a
“faction of UPDF militants.”

With Friday’s victims, a total of more than 350 tribal
activists from both UPDF and PCJSS have been killed since the
signing of the treaty, police said.