The Pahari Chhatra Parishad (PCP), Chattogram Metropolitan unit, staged a protest rally in front of the Chattogram Press Club on Thursday demanding the immediate release of Bawm community members who have been in prison for 500 days without trial.
Speakers at the rally condemned what they called “collective punishment” against the Bawm population, following the controversial April 2024 Bandarban bank robbery incident. They alleged that the state has used the incident as a pretext to indiscriminately arrest men, women, children, students, and even the elderly from the Bawm community, leaving families devastated and communities in fear.
Deaths in Custody, Pregnant Woman Detained
Highlighting the human cost of these detentions, online activist Rezaul Karim Sumon wrote that in the past 500 days at least three Bawm detainees have died in state custody — youth Lal Yeng Kim Bawm, followed by Sangmoy Bawm, and most recently Van Lal Rual Da, with whom he said he had personal ties.
Sumon further revealed that even an eight-month pregnant Bawm woman had been jailed, and was only released after giving birth amid public outcry. “Innocent villagers, including infants and school-going children, have been dragged into prison under the pretext of counter-insurgency,” he wrote, calling the crackdown a gross injustice. He also noted that many Bawm families living in Dhaka and Chattogram have not dared return to their ancestral homes for years due to fear of persecution.
“A Classic Example of State-Produced Terror”
In solidarity, Azad Hossen, Convener of the Bangladesh Students’ Federation at Chattogram University, described the repression as “a classic example of how the state manufactures ‘terror’ to justify an endless state of emergency, entrench its power, and suppress dissent.”
He argued that the repression of small indigenous groups like the Bawm reflects a deeper structure of “patrimonial political economy and colonial domination.” Warning that such experiments in repression could eventually target mainstream Bengali citizens, Azad urged broader resistance:
“If you want to protect your own lives, dignity, and rights, you must stand against repression on all communities.”
He further stated that the detention of innocent Bawm citizens without trial undermines the moral legitimacy of the post-uprising interim government itself. “Justice for the Bawm is justice for Bangladesh,” he said, demanding immediate release of detainees and an end to what he called “state tyranny.”
PCP Calls for Special Autonomy
At Thursday’s rally, PCP Chattogram President Sohel Chakma stressed that 500 days of arbitrary detention proves the state’s indifference toward indigenous rights. He claimed that the repression has already caused multiple deaths in custody, with many more detainees in dire health conditions.
Calling it a “blatant violation of human rights,” Sohel demanded the unconditional release of all detained Bawm citizens. He also urged the interim government to declare the Hill Tracts a Special Autonomous Region to restore political stability and end what he described as systematic state persecution of indigenous peoples.
