News No. 89/2013, Friday, July 26,
2013
THE ARMY has arrested two Jumma
youths in Matiranga in Khagrachari district.
A group of army personnel from
Matiranga zone made the arrests at about 1:30pm on Thursday, yesterday.
The arrested Jummas have been identified
as Sumanta Tripura, 22, son of Jagadish Tripura of village Rengkhong Para and
Kiron Bikash Tripura, 25, son of Manindra Tripura from Washu.
They were picked up from the shop of
Nirmal Tripura in Ballyachari Signboar area in Matiranga.
Sumanta Tripura, a former president
of Matiranga branch of the Hill Students’ Council, teaches at a UNDP-run
primary school in Rengkhong village.
The army handed them over to Guimara
police station last night and the police in their turn sent them to Khagrachari
jail today after showing them arrested under section 54 of the Criminal
Procedure Code, which gives police a power to arrest anyone on mere suspicion.
The UPDF in a statement has
condemned the arrest of Sumanta Tripura and Kiran Tripura and demanded their
immediate release.
Pradipan Khisha, a UPDF organiser in
Khagrachari, termed their arrest as a flagrant violation of human rights and
said “We can’t accept the fact that members of the security forces would arrest
anyone at will, without giving two hoots about the fundamental rights enshrined
in the constitution.”
He urged the government to refrain
from using the army as a tool of national repression against the Jumma people
and said, “The task of the army is to defend the country from foreign
aggression, but what it is doing in the CHT is systematic repression of a
segment of the citizenry.”
“This is unjust, inhumane and
unconstitutional and we want the government to stop it,” he added.
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