News
No. 101/2012, Saturday,
September 29, 2012
AN
ARMED gang loyal to Santu Larma, president of his faction of the Jana Samhati
Samiti, shot dead Suniti Chakma, 50, a staunch supporter of the United Peoples’
Democratic Front (UPDF), at Dudhukchara of Panchari in Khagrachati district.
Also,
an UPDF member, Hridoy Chakma has been missing since the Santu’s men stormed a
village shop near Dudhukchara Bridge
at about 7:45am today, Saturday, 29
September.
‘Five
armed men suddenly came and sprayed bullets on us, killing Suniti Chakma son of
Bichitra Chakma on the spot’, a villager who survived the attack told chtnews.com.
Suniti
Chakma is a resident of Shanti Tila village in the famed Dudhukchara where many
rounds of peace talks were held between the representatives of the government
of Bangladesh
and the Santu Larma’s JSS party before an agreement was eventually reached on 2 December 1997.
The
incident comes amid a general appeal for a joint protest by UPDF and JSS
against the 22 September Rangamati attack which left at least 70 Jummas
wounded.
It
also comes barely one week after a similar attack in Dighinala in which hired
goons of Santu Larma shot dead two UPDF activists.
The
JSS Santu group is accused of scuttling an effort to stage a joint protest and
has been severely criticized in the internet for failing to agree to a UPDF
proposal for unity.
The
UPDF Khagrachari district unit has condemned the attack as an act of cowards
and said, ‘Since Santu Larma and his notorious armed gangs cannot understand
the language of peace, since they cannot think in terms of peace, the people
have the right to speak in the language they understand.’
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