Protesters have enforced a 72-hour blockade of roads and waterways in Chittagong’s three hill districts Rangamati, Khagrachhari, and Bandarban starting from Saturday.
The blockade program was announced at a rally organized by agitated students and people in Dhaka.
United People's Democratic Front (UPDF) has strongly condemned and protested against the communal attacks, murders, and arson in homes and monasteries affecting the ethnic minority people in the hill districts.
The party expressed full support for the road and waterway blockade program.
This information was given in a press release signed by UPDF’s Niran Chakma.
The UPDF Vice President Natun Kumar Chakma, referred to the attacks in Khagrachhari and Rangamati as barbaric and deplorable in a statement.
The UPDF leader expressed outrage and said: “Such barbaric attacks on ethnic minority people can not be accepted.”
He also mentioned that countless communal attacks have occurred against the ethnic minority people during the Awami League's regime in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, none of which have been properly adjudicated to date.
The UPDF leader urgently called on the interim government to take necessary steps to halt communal attacks, provide adequate compensation to the victims, and ensure the security of property and businesses of ethnic minorities.
In the statement, he supported the upcoming 72-hour road and waterway blockade in the three hill districts, starting Saturday, urging leaders, supporters, and the general public at all levels to ensure the success of this initiative, as announced by the agitated Jumma students and populace in Dhaka.
A protest rally was organized in Rangamati on Friday protesting the Dighinala-Khagrachhari attack under the initiative of “Hill Students Movement Against Conflict and Discrimination” on Friday.
During that time the protesters alleged that the Bengalis attacked, vandalized and set fire to the shops and houses of the hill people.