The Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) on Tuesday requested all the Chief Ministers of the North East to urge External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar to raise the issue of the forcible eviction of about 7,000 Garos and 10,000 Mro people and implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs) Accord with the Government of Bangladesh during his forthcoming visit to Dhaka on March 4, 2021.
“Unless these issues are raised, there are strong possibilities that the Garos being displaced from Madhupur forest, Tangail district may be gradually forced to flee to Meghalaya while indigenous Mro people of Bandarban district of the Chittagong Hill Tracts similarly may flee to Mizoram State and/or assimilate into mainstream Islamic society in Bangladesh. Further, non-implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord of 1997 has direct implications for peace, security and stability in India’s North-Eastern region,” stated Mr. Suhas Chakma, Director of the RRAG.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee of the Forest and Environment Ministry in Bangladesh asked the authorities to issue eviction notices to the alleged illegal occupants of the Madhupur forest i.e. indigenous Garo people living in the area for centuries by January 30, 2021. Protests by the Garos have been organised but to no avail. In 2016, the Forest and Environment Ministry of Bangladesh issued a notice declaring 1,945 acres of land in Madhupur under Tangail district to be rezoned as a forest reserve. About 7,000 Garos in 13 villages, mostly Catholic villagers, will be displaced.
In September 2020, the Bangladesh Army and Sikder Group conglomerate company, R&R Holdings Limited, started construction in the five-star tourism project including a Marriott hotel, extensive network of buildings, roads, drainage, and sewage system at Chimbuk-Thanchi area of the Bandarban district of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs). This project will displace about 10,000 indigenous Mro people. On 9 February 2021, seven UN human rights experts urged Bangladesh to suspend the construction of large-scale tourist infrastructures.
Further, the key provisions of the CHTs Accord signed on December 2, 1997, between the Government of Bangladesh and the Jana Samhati Samiti have not been implemented as of date.
The instability in the CHTs, which shares the only international border with trouble-torn Rakhine State of Myanmar marked by armed conflict with the Arakan Army and the Rohingya crisis, poses serious threats to peace, security, and stability in the entire North East and the rest of India.