Dhaka, May 17 (PTI) Two Bangladeshi soldiers were killed while two others were injured when a newly-formed tribal outfit attacked a military team in the southeastern hills of the country, the Army said on Wednesday.
The attack occurred late on Tuesday when security forces rushed to the Rumma region of the Bandarban district after receiving intelligence about a makeshift “terrorist hideout” of the Kuki-Chin National Army (KNA) group, and the outfit’s armed operatives opened fire at them, the Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR) directorate of the defence ministry said.
A security clampdown is underway against the group.
“A Bangladesh Army patrol team . . . was exposed to terrorists’ sudden improvised explosive device (IED) explosions and gunfire killing two soldiers and injuring two officers,” the ISPR said in a statement on Wednesday.
An army helicopter rescued the personnel from the scene but two soldiers succumbed to their wounds at a military hospital in the port city of Chattogram, where the two others were being treated.
KNA is said to be the armed wing of the Kuki Chin National Front (KNF), an outlawed group dominated by the Bome ethnic minority community, one of 16 different tribes in southeastern Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT).
“In recent times, the KNA is trying to create an anarchic situation with the terrorist activities at Bandarban’s Ruma, Roangchhari and Thanchhi sub-districts,” the statement said.
Bangladesh’s police and other security agencies said a manhunt was underway to track down and arrest KNF chief Nathan Bome.
A nearly identical attack by the KNA in March this year killed a senior junior commissioned officer and wounded two soldiers.
On a Facebook page, the KNF claims to be representing six of the 16 ethnic minority groups in CHT, which is one-tenth of Bangladesh’s total land territory. The outlawed outfit demands the formation of a separate state with several sub-districts in two of the three hill districts.
Security officials earlier said KNF emerged as an armed group dominated by the Bome ethnic community and was reportedly formed as an alliance with a newly formed Islamist militant group which had taken refuge in the rugged hills of the country. PTI AR GRS AKJ GRS GRS
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