Shawdesh desk:

Police on Friday recovered eight bodies of men in military camouflage in a remote hilly area of Rawangchari upazila in Bandarban district, several hours after locals heard sounds of ‘exchange of fire’ on Thursday.

Bandarban police superintendent Tarikul Islam told reporters at his office that they had learned two ‘armed groups’ exchanged fire and, based on that information, their personnel found eight bodies on the spot.

The police super could not confirm the names and identities of those killed.

The Rawangchari police station officer-in-charge, Md Abdul Mannan, told New Age over the telephone that the deceased were all aged between 30 and 40 years and wore dresses like those of the Bangladesh Army.

‘They all were bullet hit,’ he said.

He said that locals told them about the sound of an exchange of fire at Khantang Para, a remote village located some 10 kilometres from the upazila headquarters, at about 7:30pm on Thursday, and police later responded to it.

He said that they seized two locally made firearms from the bodies.

Rawangchari upazila nirbahi officer Md Khorshed Alam Chowdhury said that they had heard about the incident of firing on Thursday night and on Friday noon they came to know about the recovery of the bodies.

‘We primarily learned that it was an exchange of fire between the KNF and UPDF. The KNF men died,’ said the UNO.

Locals identified the deceased as Lal Thazar Bawm, 27, Vanla Duh Bawm, 35, Sun Phither Thang Bawm, 21, Sang Khum Bawm, 45, Bawi Rem Bawm, 17, Jahim Bawm, 40, Lal Tha Zar Bawm, 27, and Lal Lian Ngak Bawm, 44.

They are all members of the Bawm Christian community of the Kuki-Chin tribe.

At about 8:30pm on Friday, Rawangchari police officer Mannan told New Age that they were still trying to establish their identities.

Mehlaaung Marma, the Rawangchari sadar union parishad chairman, said that they also learned that the Kuki-Chin National Front and a faction of the hill-based regional platform United People’s Democratic Front, known as ‘Sanskar’ or ‘democratic’ had problems in the Bawm-dominated area.

No version from UPDF was available until Friday evening, while KNF on their Facebook page said those who were killed were ‘innocent’.

The chairman, Mehlaaung Marma, said that the incident took place some 10 kilometres away from where an army officer was killed recently.

On March 12, master warrant officer Nazim Uddin of the Bangladesh Army was shot dead and  two others were injured after the Chittagong Hill Tracts-based ‘separatist’ group Kuki-Chin National Army allegedly ambushed an army patrol in a remote area of Rawangchari in Bandarban.

An Inter-Services Public Relations press release stated that Kuki-Chin Army members had ambushed and opened fire on the Bangladesh army team, which had been providing security to a medical team.

In February 2022, an exchange of fire at a remote village of Ruma upazila in the same district left senior warrant officer Habibur Rahman killed and a soldier named Firoz injured.

The ISPR release on March 13 said that the ‘separatist-ideology-inspired’ Kuki-Chin National Army had already provided arms training to members of Jama’atul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya in the hilly Bandarban area for money.

The Bandarban district administration on March 12 issued travel restrictions in the upazilas for an indefinite period.

The Kuki-Chin National Army is the armed wing of the Christian-dominated Kuki-Chin National Front.

In a statement on March 13, the Rapid Action Battalion said that they had arrested nine suspected members of Jama’atul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya, which the RAB said was trained by the Kuki-Chin National Front, in the Tangkabdi area of Bandarban.

In 2019, a 17-member military convoy reportedly came under gunfire in Rajasthali, near Rangamati.

Two soldiers were injured in that attack, and one of them later died in a hospital.