Bangladesh restricts tourism in southeastern hills amid unease calmness

Dhaka: Bangladesh Sunday imposed a travel ban on three southeastern hill districts amid sectarian tensions between local ethnic minority communities and Bengali settlers in the region, which has left five people dead and several injured.

The deputy commissioners or administrative chiefs of the three districts, bordering India and Myanmar, in separate but similar statements, requested tourists not to visit the region, called Chattogram Hill Tracts (CHT), from Oct 8-31.

The deputy commissioners of Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban hill districts issued the statements, citing "unavoidable grounds", without providing further details.

Rangamati Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain Khan said the instruction applied to all three hill districts, a popular tourist destination.

CHT is the abode of over a dozen, mostly Buddhist majority, ethnic minority groups, while the ban came days after the monks scrapped their scheduled “Kaathin Chibor Dan” or “offering of yellow robes to monks” festival, citing security reasons.

The festival was scheduled to be held in mid-October.

The authorities previously discouraged travel to Sajek Valley, one of the most sought-after tourist destinations in Bangladesh, for an indefinite period amid sectarian tensions between indigenous hill communities and the Bengali migrants.

The sectarian violence, which erupted last month after a Bengali youth was beaten to death by a mob over a motorcycle theft incident in Khagrachhari district, claimed four lives.

The ethnic minority or tribal groups enforced a temporary blockade in the three hill districts while authorities ordered an extra vigil by army troops and police and enforced a ban on rallies.

The unrest prompted the interim government of Muhammad Yunus to issue a stern warning against any attempt to instigate violence in the region, which experienced a two-decade insurgency before a peace deal was inked in 1997.

His three senior advisers, equivalent to ministers, visited the region and met leaders of the feuding communities at Rangamati Cantonment.

"None will be spared if found responsible. If they attempt this again in the future, they will face severe consequences," Home Affairs Adviser Lt Gen (retd.) Mohammad Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said at that time.

Their meeting decided to form a high-level committee to investigate the recent incidents of violence in Rangamati and Khagrachari districts.

"There is an external conspiracy attempting to destroy our harmony," Hasan Arif, one of the three advisers, told the meeting.

The proposed committee would uncover those involved to be exposed to justice or dealt with accordingly, he added.

The 1997 peace agreement between the then regime of now ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina and Parbatya Chattogram Jana Sanghati Samity (PJJSS) had ended the insurgency over regional autonomy for the hill people.

However, sporadic unrest continued, mostly due to in-fights among different breakaway factions of tribal groups, including PCJSS and UPDF.