Arson attacks In Khagrachhari: ‘We are integrationists, not separatists’

Students from indigenous communities protested Thursday’s arson attacks in Khagrachhari’s Dighinala upazila in different places of the country yesterday.
Demonstrations were held at five public universities where they demanded justice and an end to violence against the country’s indigenous people.
In Dhaka, several hundred students blocked the Shahbagh intersection around 11:45am, staging a half-hour sit-in.
The demonstrators, carrying national flags and placards, shouted slogans such as “Withdraw army from the hills.”
The placards read different slogans, including “Save the hills and our culture,” “Stop land grabbing,” “Stop militarisation in CHT,” and “Implement the CHT Accord”.
Vehicular movement was disrupted during the protest.
Around 10:00am, they held a rally at the Raju Memorial Sculpture on Dhaka University campus, demanding justice for the attacks on indigenous communities in Khagrachhari.
Addressing the rally, Alik Mree, president of Adivasi Chhatra Sangram Parishad, said, “Mafias in the hilly areas opened fire on unarmed people, which goes against the spirit of the July mass uprising. These forces are funded by taxpayers’ money, yet they attack ethnic minorities.”
At Jahangirnagar University, the Indigenous Students Association blocked the Dhaka-Aricha highway in protest for about 20 minutes, bringing traffic to a standstill until 4:40pm.
Before the protest rally, a march by students from the university’s Teacher-Student Centre took place, with demonstrators parading through the campus. It concluded with a human chain in front of the Shaheed Minar.
In Rajshahi, several hundred indigenous students from Rajshahi University and Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology gathered on Paris Road at RU to protest the attacks.
The rally, which began at 4:30pm, lasted more than two hours with students demanding justice and an end to violence.
Speaking at the rally, Bikash Chakma, a philosophy student at RU, said, “We are not separatists; we are integrationists.”
Another student, Tarek Shahriar, added, “After 53 years of independence, it’s heartbreaking that the hill tribes still need to declare they are integrationists, not separatists. It’s truly tragic.”
In Tangail, students from the indigenous community at Mawlana Bhashani Science & Technology University (MBSTU) formed a human chain at the university’s main gate.
Meanwhile, in Chattogram, indigenous people held a demonstration at the Cheragi Pahar intersection yesterday morning, demanding justice for the attacks.
They gathered at Jamal Khan intersection around 10:00am, before marching to Cheragi Pahar, where they held a rally at 11:00am.
Speakers at the rally accused vested interests of attempting to disturb peace in the Hill Tracts by fuelling conflicts between “indigenous people and settlers”.
On Thursday night, students at Chittagong University (CU) held a torchlight procession and formed a human chain at the university’s zero point in solidarity with the victims of the attacks.