A BAWM young man, Lal Tleng Kim Bawm, a resident of Bethel Para of Ramu in Bandarban, arrested on April 8, 2024 on suspicion of having been involved in the Kuki-Chin National Front, died in prison custody in Chattogram on May 15. He was arrested during joint operations conducted against the Kuki-Chin National Front that is said to have been responsible for attacks on banks and security facilities in the district between April 2 night and April 3 afternoon that year. The armed group attacked two Sonali Bank branches at Ruma and Thanchi and a Krishi Bank branch at Thanchi, looted 12 firearms, 400 bullets and Tk 1.7 million in cash and abducted the manager of the Sonali Bank branch at Ruma. The joint operation that the army and the law enforcement agencies carried out in April 7–8 arrested 49 suspects while the police arrested five, including a driver reported to have driven the armed KNF people to Thanchi on April 3. Lal Tleng was one of the others, who reportedly included women, children, pregnant women and even thalassemia patients, still languishing in jail custody since then.
Lal Tleng, as the jailor of the Chittagong central jail said, was initially attended to by an in-house medical officer after he had complained of chest pain and physicians at the Chittagong Medical College Hospital pronounced him dead when he was taken there. He is primarily suspected to have died of a heart attack. Prison officials have said that another man, detained for his suspected involvement with the Kuki-Chin National Front, is also critically ill and has been in hospital for about a month and a half. What is worrying is that there are allegations of medical negligence in the case. The prolonged detention of about a hundred Bawm people after their arrest in the 2024 April incident makes the case further worrisome in view of the rights of the detained and the rule of law. Concern has earlier been raised on a few occasions, urging meaningful moves to find out the perpetrators of the attacks and hold them to justice and demanding that the security of the civilians should in no way be jeopardised when security personnel were reported to be harassing and arresting people, which constituted a serious violation of human rights.
A horde of legal proceedings were settled after the August 2024 political changeover that overthrew the Awami League government and installed the interim government that has tried to improve governance and make reforms. Yet, the cases filed against the Bawms have not been disposed of. The government should take early steps in this regard.
