FOCUS : A Month After Abduction, Kalpana Chakma Yet to be Rescued – Morshed Ali Khan
Kalpana Chakma, the 24-year-old Chakma girl and the organising Sec- retary of the Hill Women’s Federation (HWF), abducted at gun-point in the early hours of June 12 is yet to be traced.
At around 1-30 am of the night, a group of men armed with auto- matic weapons surrounded her village home in the remote hilly village of Lalyaghana under Baghachori thana in Rangamati district of the Chittagong Hill Tracts and abducted her, close relatives of the family described.
“We were asleep when someone called out from outside and wanted to know who were inside the house,” said Kalpana’s mother. ‘60-year old Badhani Chakma, “then they cut down the latch of the door from outside and entered the house.
“They kept powerful torchlight on our face and took away my younger son Khudiram saying that “sir wanted to talk to him” contin- ued a distressed Badhani. “Few minutes later they took away my elder son Kalicharan and my daughter Kalpana leaving behind myself and Kalicharan’s wife.”
Kalicharan, a farmer and the bread-earner of the family, said that the three were, at one point, blindfolded and tied by the hands near the well of the house and were asked to sit down.
“Some were wearing fatigues and some had lungis tied up to their waist. They first took Khudiram from us, Kalicharan said. Asked in what language the intruders were talking, Kalicharan replied.” in Bengali.
Khudiram described how he escaped : “I was asked to step into the water in the lowlying area near the well. As soon as I did so, someone shouted ‘shoot him’. Sencing imminent death I somehow untied my hand, removed fold around my eyes and started running in the waist-deep water. I could hear one gun-shot behind me but I kept running.
Kalicharan said that after they led Khudiram away, Kalpana was taken away from his side. “On hearing the gun shot and the shoutings few yards away I untied my hand, removed the fold around my eyes and jumped into the water, they shot at me once and as I ran I could hear Kalpana cry out ‘Dada, Dada’, Kalicharan described to reporters and lawyers sitting in front of his tribal house.
With the break of the daylight the two brothers came out of their hidings and informed the villager. Kalicharan rushed to the Baghaichari thana about two miles away with a khaki ammunition pouche found near the well while Khudiram went to the local army camp, situated on a hill-top near the village.
Said Khudiram, “I recognised three people among the assailants— of them two belong to the local Village Defense Party (VDP) and a lieutenant of the army, posted in the local camp called Oghalchari. When I approached the camp and asked them to return Kalpana, they started to throw abuse at me.”
“On March 19 last, seven Chakma houses were burnt down fol- lowing the killing of a Bengali settler in the area,” said Prashanta Chakma, Headmaster of the Oghalchari Junior High School.
Villagers and family members said that the army officer in ques- tion had visited Kalpana at the end of March and told her that he was sorry for all he had done and he hoped that villagers would return to the village soon.
“He knew Kalpana had failed to attend the World Conference on Women in Beijing last year due to fund constraint and talked to her on various problems, he also sought her help to normalise the situation in the area,” said Kalicharan’s wife who claimed to have been present there.
Local youths said that Kalpana, a student of BA at the local col- lege, was always a strong and vocal activist for the cause of the Chakma people and she regularly attended conferences, discussions at the na- tional level and played a prominent role in this respect.
Prior to her abduction, she along with the HWF and Pahari Chattra Parishad (PCP), a students’ organisation of the Chakmas, had been campaigning for the independent candidate Bijoy Ketan Chakma in the general elections who lost to an AL candidate.
The OC of Baghaichari Shahidullah, also the Investigative Officer (IO) of the case confirmed taking Khudirams statement as identifying the abductors, but said that despite his best efforts to rescue Kalpana, his investigation was hampered due to various reasons.
“Do you think we have easy access to the hilly areas? Every time we go to the interior for any investigation, we have to seek help from the army”, said the OC claiming that there was confusion in the abduc- tion case of Kalpana and it could take long to conclude the probe.
When asked what confusion could arise, the OC said that a lot of rumours were going about, some say she is in Rangamati, some say she is in an army camp and some say she has been taken away by the Shantibahini.” The OC said admitting that he had no clue of the case yet.
During the investigation it was found out that the First Informa- tion Report (FIR), written by the OC from Kalicharan’s description, did not match the one recorded by the TNO of Baghaichari. The state- ment given to the TNO by Kalicharan was recorded with clear facts and figures while the FIR written by the OC lacked clarity. No one read out the FIR to Kalicharan before accepting it, it was alleged.
The abduction of Kalpana immediately escalated the prevaling ten- sion among the Chakmas and Bengali settlers in the area. The Bengali settlements in the hilly areas which intensified in the later part of eight- ies, had concentrated mainly in the thana sadars, district headquarters and other areas almost always separated from the Chakma areas.
On June 15 the Pahari Chattra Parishad (PCP) and the Hill Women’s Federation (HWF) brought out a protest procession in the area demand- ing release of Kalpana and arrest of the abductors.
Then on June 27, the PCP and the HWF called for a siege in the Baghaichari area. As the Bengali settlers resisted the siege, a clash broke out between the Chakmas and the Bengali which left Rupan Chakma, a Class-ten student of the local school, shot dead. Although confirmed dead, Rupan’s body could never be recovered by the police nor any of the thirteen persons accused in the case was arrested.
Incidents of June 27 almost cut off communications between the Bengali and the Chakma areas. This correspondent had to change boats as the Bengali boatmen refused to ply into Chakma areas. The Chakma boatman, in turn, did not come into the Bengali areas.
In Rangamati, about a ten-hour journey from Lalyaghona by en- gine boat across the picturesque region of the hill tracts, Shah Alam, the Deputy Commissioner, commenting on the case said that it now lay with the police and the law would take its own course.
“On June 12, high officials of the local administration visited the spot and they are conducting investigation,” the DC said adding that the case No 2/12 at the Baghaichari thana in this respect was under investigation.
The SP of Rangamati Md. Nurul Anwar said that his administra- tion was under pressure from ‘above’ to resolve the crisis as soon as possible and he was ‘hundred per cent hopeful’ that Kalpana would be freed. He added that nothing could be determined until Kalpana was released and gave her own statement.
“There is no legal barrier to interrogate a suspect, wherever he is and we have done so with the Army Lieutenant in question,” the SP said, “the army Brigadier commander has given me permission to visit any of the 180 army camps in the hilly areas,” he said.
When asked how many of the camps he had visited, the SP said that the terrain in the area was difficult and the communications bad, therefore it was not possible to visit any.
At the Rangamati Army Headquarters, the Commander Major told this correspondent that the army had conducted its own investigation into the matter and sent its report to the local administration.
“If you have any more query, please contact the Inter Services Public Relation, they are the people to represent the army to the press”, the Commander Major concluded.
Meanwhile, some Chakma villagers claimed that they had spotted Kalpana being shifted in a jet-boat from an army camp at Shilchari Mukh at the intersection of Tangumachara Mukh and Khagrachari Mukh on June 18. This, however, could not be confirmed by any official.
In the hill areas of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, where a ceasefire is in force until July 30, going missing is a common phenomenon for both the Bengal settlers and the Chakmas.
In every village, both Chakma and Bengali people come to tell how many had gone missing within the last few days. In the case of Kalpana’s abduction, the local administration seemed to be experienc- ing quite an uneasy situation. The matter has been reported by national and international media as well as different local organisation. It is hoped that the local and national authorities will do every thing to find out and free Kalpana immediately.
Dhaka Saturday, 13 July 1996