JSS clarification raises more questions than answers

AN official press release issued by Jana Samhati Samiti (Santu group) on the seizure of Major Mahabub, an intelligence officer, along with firearms meant for it has raised more questions than it answered.

Posted on the facebook page of one of its supporters(http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/home.php?sk=group_150002018385535&view=doc&id=179379422114461),
the press release sought to clarify the allegation that the arms seized from Major Mahabub on 15 April in Baghaichari were meant for Santu group.

The Santu group in its clarification tried in vain to portray the whole incident as an attempted kidnapping.

It said “A group of miscreants led by Sudarshan Chakma, chairman of Baghaichari upazila council and a gang leader of terrorist group of UPDF & reformist group based Babu Para under Baghaichari upazila headquarters tried to kidnap a DGFI officer named Major Mahbub from Baghaichari upazila headquarters under Rangamati district on 15 April 2011 while he (Major Mahbub) along with his family and two bodyguards
was going to Shijok Doar to attend a Bizu invitation. One Abiskar, Chakma invited him on the occasion of Bizu festival to his house at Sijak Daur area under Baghaichari upazila.”

If it were a case of attempted kidnapping, the DGFI officer would have filed a criminal case with the police after his “release”. But he did not.

Furthermore, the JSS press release did not explain how it could have been possible for unarmed “UPDF members” to kidnap Major Mahabub while he was being escorted by two bodyguards armed with two sophisticated weapons (SMGs), and that too from the centre of a sub-district headquarters surrounded by army, BGB and police camps.

On the other hand, UPDF leaders told chtnews.com that they were not involved in the affair at all.

The JSS claim that the DGFI Major was invited by Abiskar Chakma to participate in Bizu (Boisabi) festival is also dubious and only proves a nexus between Santu group and DGFI, the most feared intelligence agency in Bangladesh.

For one thing, the main Bizu or Boisabi festival, when people eat and drink and merry make, ended on 13 April, while Major Mahabub was seized on 15 April.

Secondly, the invitation presupposes a deep and cordial friendship between Major Mahabub, aged approximately 40, and Abiskar Chakma, aged 35.

On inquiry, chtnews.com has found out that Abiskar Chakma’s real name is Manik Chakma, hailing from the village of Kandebochara under Balukhali Union in Rangamati district.

A member of an armed group patronized by Santu Larma, Abiskar Chakma is alleged to have been involved in the shooting death of Chizimoni Chakma, a member of JSS (MN Larma faction), and his two-year old daughter Orki Chakma on 13 April.

His father Jalotkar Chakma is also a former member of the JSS. He surrendered to the government following the CHT accord singed in 1997 and is now a member of Bangladesh police force.

Santu group stands to explain how the friendship developed between Major Mahabub, who probably lives in Dhaka, and Abiskar Chakma in a remote Shizokdoar village.

A friendship between a DGFI officer and a common Jumma villager is quite unusual and unnatural in the context of the CHT – where even good intentioned Bengalis let alone intelligence personnel are looked upon by Jumma people with suspicion – unless there is a hidden agenda between them.

Thirdly, it is unbelievable that anyone, even an intelligence officer, should visit his friend to attend a festival carrying automatic weapons. Neither JSS (Santu faction) nor Major Mahabub has explained on this.

To sum up, the clarification by Santu group fails to extricate itself from the sordid affair involving Major Mahabub. Rather, it proves to be a self-indictment of a deep, unholy nexus between Santu group and the government’s most powerful intelligence agency, the DGFI.
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Source : chtnews.com