Bangladesh Army along with Border Guard Bangladesh has reinforced their drive against \u2018terrorists\u2019 in remote hills in Khagrachari and Rangamati following a \u2018gunfight\u2019 that killed five ethnic minority people on Saturday, officials said.\u00a0\u2018We also remain alert following Saturday\u2019s incident and it\u2019s a kind of regular operation but now reinforced,\u2019 said a senior official involved in the operation.
\nAnother official said that the operation began on August 14 and it was reinforced for the hunt of a dozen \u2018armed terrorists\u2019 who might have fled during the hour-long \u2018gunfight\u2019 with army at remote Baradam village of Baghaichari upazila in Rangamati on Saturday morning.
\nBorder Guard Bangladesh deputy director general (operations and training) Khandaker Farid Hassan refrained from commenting on the operation.
\nArmy officials in hills were unwilling to comment on the ongoing operation while the Inter Services Public Relations officials had no update.
\nThe deceased \u2013 Rupayan Chakma, 24, Jackson Chakma, 26, Kathumoni Chakma, 26, Kanti Marma, 28, and Babul Chakma, 20, \u2013 were in combat uniform and were identified by the police and locals.
\nThe bodies were handed over to the families after post-mortem examination on Sunday.
\nThe families, however, identified the deceased as Kiron Chakma, 30, of Baghaichari upazila, who was identified on Saturday as Rupayan by an identity card found in his pocket, Babul Chakma, 26, of Baghaihat, and Tutumoni Tripura, 33, of Mahalchari, earlier identified as Tathumoni Chakma, Khokon Tripura, 18, of Guimara upazila, earlier identified as Kanti Marma, and Rubel Chakma, 16, of Nannerchar, earlier identified as Jackson Chakma, 26.
\nThe families said that the victims had either left them or gone into hiding.
\nAll the deceased were in Bangladesh army combat uniform, the police said.
\nAn Inter Services Public Relations release on Saturday branded them as \u2018armed terrorists\u2019 and said that the army team also detained three of the gang and l seized a machinegun, a pistol and a submachine gun, two
\nChinese rifles, three self-loading rifles, huge ammunition and uniforms used by the gang.
\nThe police said that of the deceased were members of Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti (MN Larma), which had split away from the hill tracts-based regional party, led by Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma, popularly known as Santu Larma.
\nPCJSS (MN Larma), however, denied that the deceased were their members claiming that their party had no armed members.
\nBaghaichari police filed two cases against unidentified \u2018terrorists\u2019 for the \u2018gunfight\u2019 and using arms.
\n\u2018We are also investigating the sources of arms and ammunition,\u2019 said the Baghaichari police officer-in-charge Zahir Hossain.
\nThe police on Sunday conducted a search in the area to see whether any arms left abandoned following Saturday\u2019s operation.<\/p>\n

-With New Age<\/strong> input<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bangladesh Army along with Border Guard Bangladesh has reinforced their drive against \u2018terrorists\u2019 in remote hills in Khagrachari and Rangamati following a \u2018gunfight\u2019 that killed five ethnic minority people on Saturday, officials said.\u00a0\u2018We also remain alert following Saturday\u2019s incident and it\u2019s a kind of regular operation but now reinforced,\u2019 said a senior official involved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[510,12301],"yoast_head":"\n