chtnews.com
July
17, 2018, Tuesday
RANGAMATI: Two innocent Jumma villagers were arrested from their homes in Ghilachari under Naniachar Upazila on Monday night.
The arrest was made by the army from Naniachar zone after a search in their houses.
Both men, Ananta Bikash Dewan, 67, son of Devsen Dewan and Somor Chakma, 37, son of Putul Chakma, have been sent to Rangamai district jail.
According to their family sources, the soldiers surrounded their houses around 10 p.m. before carrying out the search.
‘The army entered our houses and secretly put weapons in some corners without us knowing, and then after a while took those weapons out, saying they found them in our houses, although there is no question of us possessing weapons,’ they said.
Two masked men, believed to the members of the army-backed Nobyo Mukhosh Bahini vigilante group, accompanied the army during the search.
At midnight Ananta and Somor were taken to Naniachar zone.
Before leaving, the army forced three Jumma shopkeepers to sign a blank sheet of paper, presumably to make them witnesses to the ‘recovery of the weapons’.
When asked what might have prompted the army to arrest them in such a manner, Ananta Chakma’s family said it might be due to the fact that both of them had been quite vocal against anti-Jumma activities of the NMB vigilantes, who are now having a field day with the support of the army.