DYF leader Super Jyoti Chakma arrested in Lakshmichari

Super Jyoti Chakma, Organising Secretary of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Democratic Youth Forum, was arrested by members of Bangladesh Army in Lakshmichari of Khagrachari district on 4 December.

After the arrest, he was taken to the army zone head quarters for interrogation. The army also tucked a gun into his hands and forced him to pose for photographs. Later, he was handed over to the police.

The army is reported to have filed an extortion case against him and he is due to be transferred to Khagrachari jail today.

Super Jyoti Chakma, also a Masters Degree student of Jagannath College in Dhaka, went home in Pekkua Para village in Lakshmichari after attending the 10th co-ordination meeting between UPDF and its front organisatins in Chittagong on 27 November. The meeting had decided to hold a rally in Lakshmichari in observance of the seventh founding anniversary of the United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF) and he was entrusted to do the necessary ground work and form a preparatory committee to make it a success.

Just a few hours before his arrested Super Jyoti Chakma contacted the office of the UPDF’s Human Rights Monitoring Cell and informed that a climate of fear was prevailing among the people in Lakshmichari due to increased military activities. He also said that a few days before his arrival the Zone Commander Lieut. col. Md. Mujib called a meeting of the public representatives and village elders in which the commander blew hot on the Swadhikar, the mouth piece of the UPDF, for reporting about human rights violations by the army in Lakshmichari. The zone commander told Super Jyoti Chakma’s father Gul Moni Chakma, who attended the said meeting, that the army would arrest his son if he came to Lakshmichari.

The Lakshmichari Zone of the Bangladesh army has earned notoriety for human rights violations including arrest of innocent people after branding them as terrorists. A de facto ban on holing public meetings and processions has been in place since last year and those who take part in UPDF programmes outside Lakshmichari are regularly harassed.

The UPDF in its Swadhikar bulletin has published reports of army wrongdoings, but this only aggravated the situation and the soldiers stepped up repression with greater ferocity.

The UPDF maintains an open office in Lakshmichari, but its activities are almost non-existent because of army pressure.

The Democratic Youth Forum will bring out processions and stage demonstrations in Dhaka and Chittagong in protest against the arrest of Super Jyoti Chakma today (5 December).

Prepared by Press Section, Publications and Publicity Department, United People's Democratic Front (UPDF), December 05, 2005, Dhaka.