The popular tourist destination, Bandarban with its attractive green forests, cloud-touching wavy hills and diverse lifestyles in the Chattogram Hill Tracts, is now becoming a no-go zone due to the armed activities of the separatist group Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF).
Although the local administration has withdrawn the travel ban from Ruma and Thanchi upazilas of Bandarban on July 15 nine months after it was imposed in the wake of the emergence of militancy in the country's tourist regions. Unease prevails in the area.
An army patrol team fully destroyed a secret training camp along with the headquarters of the armed terrorists of KNF (Kuki-Chin National Front) in Thepipara area of Ruma upazila of Bandarban on June 30.
As the team approached the training camp, the KNF armed terrorist group fled, according to sources.
Meanwhile, the KNF and its armed wing Kuki-Chin National Army (KNA) are still waging a cyber warfare on the social media.
The tourism industry is the most affected sector due to the social media campaign by KNF in the Bandarban district.
Bandarban's tourism has been temporarily threatened by the Kuki-Chin Army, a regional terrorist organization, but now the travel ban on tourists has been lifted as the crisis has been resolved in a joint operation by the law enforcing agency. As a result, the law enforcers work tirelessly to ensure the safe travel of tourists coming from far away.
Meanwhile, tourist influx remains at zero level. At least 200 hotels and resorts in the district have laid off their employees for lack of tourists. On the other hand, financial crises have gripped the families linked to more than 200 boats and 300 tourist jeeps (locally called Chander Gari), and around 300 tourist guides in Thanchi and Ruma upazilas.
The workers engaged in the construction of government roads, bridges, culverts and schools work under huge security arrangement.
The KNF issued a ban on the association of transport owners operating jeeps in Ruma, Thanchi and Rwangchhari upazilas for providing vehicles for the ongoing operations carried out by the joint forces. There is extreme fear still among the vehicle drivers plying on the three upazila roads.
According to sources, many among the Bom community took shelter in Mizoram with the help of KNF, but many of them later migrated to Chennai and Bangalore to work in various hotels. The KNF was angry with them for not taking part in the armed conflict.
As a clash took place among the KNF members over the issue, KNF chief Nathan Bom and the chief of staff of the organization Vanchun Lian Master, who is also an assistant teacher at Pantala Headman Para Govt Primary School, called a meeting at Humunuam village of Langtalai district of Mizoram on March 10.
Finance Secretary of Bandarban Hotel Motel Owners Association Rajiv Bara said, "Tourism business in the district is on the verge of collapse. We hope to get rid of all this."
President of Bandarban District Truck Owners Association Md Musa said, "No armed group has ever attacked drivers before. Now I am worried about the way they are being attacked and kidnapped."
The KNF surfaced on the scene last year after the Indian border forces arrested a dozen members with arms and ammunition in Mizoram. In October, law enforcers discovered that KNF was training members of militant group Jama'atul Ansar in exchange for money.
The group aims at establishing a separate State within Bangladesh -- with nine upazilas, namely Baghaichari, Barkal, Belaichari and Jurachari upazilas of Rangamati hill district and Ruma, Thanchi, Alikadam and Rowangchhari upazilas under Bandarban.
In recent times, KNF terrorists have been creating anarchy using social media in the hilly townships of Ruma, Roanchhari and Thanchi upazilas of Bandarban through continuous threat of killing, kidnapping, creating panic in the public mind. Bangladesh Army and other law enforcement agencies are working to prevent such human rights violations, according to sources.
