UN urged to act on racial violence against Bangladesh’s indigenous peoples

GUWAHATI

A New Delhi-based rights body has appealed to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to take serious note of racial violence against indigenous people in Bangladesh.

Addressing the 60th session of the UNHRC in Geneva on Thursday (October 2, 2025), Rights and Risks Analysis Group director Suhas Chakma said the Bangladesh Army killed at least three indigenous people and injured 40 others at Guimara village in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) on September 28.

The indigenous people, largely from the Marma and Mog communities, were protesting under the banner of the Jumma Chhatra Parishad, demanding justice for a minor Marma girl raped by three illegal settlers.

The incident was flagged by Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma, the royal scion of Tripura and founder of the Tipra Motha Party. Condemning the killing of indigenous people by the Bangladesh Army, he said radicals were allowed to ransack and occupy land in the neighbouring country’s Khagrachari district.

Reacting to a similar incident in 2024, he had called for immediate intervention from the Indian government regarding the persecution of minority communities in Bangladesh.

Mr. Chakma told the UNHRC that the relatives of the victims of the September 28 incident were scared to file police complaints because of threats. “In September 2024, the illegal settlers and the Bangladesh Army killed four indigenous persons, injured 75 others, and burnt hundreds of houses of indigenous peoples in the CHT, but Dhaka has not made the inquiry report public,” he said.

“Not a single indigenous person or minority was included in Bangladesh’s Constitutional Reforms Commission. The report of this commission made no reference to indigenous peoples or minorities, thereby denying their existence in law,” he said.

Mr. Chakma pointed out that on January 12, the National Curriculum Board of Bangladesh removed the word ‘Adivasi’ or indigenous from a graffiti on the back cover of its high school grammar textbook. “When indigenous students went to protest in Dhaka on January 15, they were attacked by Islamic fundamentalists,” he said.

He appealed to the UNHRC to take effective measures to address such racial discrimination in Bangladesh.

Earlier, the Global Association for Indigenous Peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts urged the Western diplomatic missions based in Dhaka to send a team to visit the affected areas of the CHT to investigate the September 28 massacre.

The association accused the Bangladesh Army of allowing illegal Muslim settlers in the CHT to burn down tribal houses in parts of the Khagrachari district. The Bangladesh government has allegedly been undermining the land rights of indigenous people by settling Muslims in the region.

The CHT is home to more than 10 ethnic groups, including the Chakma, Bawm, Khumi, Khyang, and Lushai.