The Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) today stated that, according to reports from the majority Muslim settlers implanted in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) will raise the issue of the alleged presence in India of the cadres of the Bangladesh government-sponsored armed group, the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS) from the CHT, during the ongoing 57th DG-level Border Coordination Conference with the Border Security Force (BSF), which commenced yesterday.
“This is nothing but an attempt to divert attention from the ongoing pushbacks from West Bengal and to counter India’s demand to expedite the identity verification of 2,360 Bangladeshis for deportation, which Bangladesh has refused to carry out for decades. The PCJSS, headed by Santu Larma, is a Bangladesh government-sponsored armed group and, therefore, it has been enjoying the powers of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council since its establishment in 1999 without elections to this day,”- stated Mr. Suhas Chakma, Director of the Rights and Risks Analysis Group.
“Unlike the Government of Bangladesh, which has deployed the PCJSS (Santu) to engage in extortion and killing of indigenous peoples while enjoying state power in the CHT, Indian authorities have regularly taken actions against the criminal activities by the PCJSS cadres. In its judgment dated 05 September 2024 in the case of National Investigation Agency versus Rohmingliana, the Gauhati High Court termed the PCJSS a terrorist organisation while adjudicating the seizure of 31 AK-47 rifles, one LMG, one Browning Automatic Rifle, and ammunition from three PCJSS cadres by the Assam Rifles on 07 March 2013. The fact that the PCJSS (Santu) still given the powers of the CHT Regional Council despite regular reports of its cadres being arrested for arms smuggling in India and reported judgment of the Gauhati High Court establishes beyond any reasonable doubt that the PCJSS (Santu) is Dhaka’s Wagner Group, deployed for intelligence gathering abroad and the killing of Indigenous peoples in the CHT,” added Mr. Chakma.
“If the Government of Bangladesh is serious about the so-called threats posed by the PCJSS (Santu) cadres, it must remove such an armed group from exercising the powers of the CHT Regional Council. While India has taken far more serious actions against the PCJSS cadres, the government of Bangladesh has not taken any action and further rewarded the PCJSS with the powers of the CHT Regional Council. The Government of Bangladesh must not act clever by half by blaming India on the alleged presence of its own armed group PCJSS whose cadres are sent to India by various agencies of the Government of Bangladesh including the Directorate General of the Forces’s Intelligence (DGFI). This bluff of the Government of Bangladesh and the BGB must be unmasked.” – asserted Mr. Chakma.
