In the shadow of a deepening governance crisis, the interim government of Bangladesh is presiding over a brutal and systematic campaign of repression against its indigenous communities. Far from being a neutral caretaker, the current administration has intensified a policy of violence, displacement, and cultural erasure, particularly in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). The alarming deterioration in human rights nationwide finds its most acute expression in the plight of the indigenous Jumma people, whose suffering exposes the hollow promises of democratic accountability and lays bare the government’s authoritarian agenda.
The 1997 Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord, an agreement that should have been a cornerstone of reconciliation, has been rendered meaningless as the current regime has shown an active disinterest in its implementation. This deliberate neglect is not a passive failure; it is a strategic tool of subjugation. By refusing to demilitarise the region, devolve power to local councils, or resolve land disputes as stipulated in the accord, the government perpetuates a state of conflict that serves as a pretext for its iron-fisted control. The military remains an occupying force in the CHT, enabling a climate of fear where state-sanctioned violence thrives.
Recent months have witnessed a horrifying escalation of this violence, seemingly encouraged by the government’s broader crackdown on dissent. Human rights monitors have documented a chilling pattern of attacks on indigenous villages by settlers, often with the direct support or calculated inaction of state security forces. These are not mere communal flare-ups; they are pogroms designed to terrorise and expel the Jumma people from their ancestral lands. In the fall of 2024, a wave of coordinated assaults left a trail of death and destruction, with homes burned, places of worship desecrated, and livelihoods destroyed. The government’s response has been a deafening silence, signalling a green light for the perpetrators.
This state-sponsored violence is methodical. Indigenous women are systematically targeted with sexual violence, a heinous weapon employed to break the spirit of the community and inflict collective shame. The absolute impunity granted to the attackers, who often include security personnel, underscores the government’s complicity. When complaints are filed, they are routinely ignored, and the survivors are left without recourse to justice, further entrenching the power of the oppressors. This is not a failure of the justice system; it is the system functioning as intended by an administration that views its minorities as obstacles.
The interim government’s systematic neglect extends into every facet of indigenous life. Under the guise of maintaining order, security forces subject the Jumma people to constant harassment, arbitrary arrests, and extrajudicial detentions. Land grabbing has become rampant, with politically connected settlers and corporations seizing indigenous territory with the full backing of the local administration. The state’s machinery is not broken; it is being wielded effectively to dispossess a people.
This targeted repression is a direct consequence of the broader governance crisis gripping Bangladesh. An administration that muzzles the press, undermines the judiciary, and suppresses all forms of political opposition will inevitably prey upon its most vulnerable citizens. By dismissing the documented atrocities against minorities as politically motivated fabrications, the government is not only abdicating its responsibility to protect but is actively participating in a campaign of disinformation to cover up its crimes. The exclusion of indigenous representatives from any national reform dialogue further confirms the government’s intent to permanently marginalise these communities and deny them any say in their own future.
The crisis in the Chittagong Hill Tracts is more than a human rights tragedy; it is a damning indictment of the interim government in Dhaka. It reveals a regime that has abandoned any pretence of upholding the rule of law and is instead entrenching its power through brutal repression. For the indigenous peoples of Bangladesh, the fight is no longer for autonomy but for their very survival against a state that has become their chief persecutor. The international community must look past the government’s rhetoric and see the reality on the ground: a state-directed war on a defenceless minority.