Rescuing Effort of Bangladesh Army Falsely Peddled as Torture of Indigenous Woman

Recently, a claim has been circulated on X (formerly Twitter) alleging that the Bangladesh Army is publicly torturing indigenous Buddhist women in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. This claim was shared by the X account “Voice of Bangladesh Hindus” on January 12, accompanied by two photos of an injured woman. The post has garnered over 2,000 likes so far.

Fact-Check

Rumor Scanner’s investigation found that the claim of the Bangladesh Army publicly torturing an indigenous woman is false. In reality, the Army rescued the indigenous/tribal woman visiting Sajek and ensured her safety. Additionally, the incident is not recent but occurred in August of the previous year (2024).

Initially, upon observing the photo and video of the incident, an unconscious woman is seen lying on the ground, with local tribal women and children nearby. The video apparently shows the army helping to rescue the injured unconscious woman. Locals apparently tried to obstruct. During this time, several Bengali youths, wearing the same T-shirt, are seen assisting in lifting the woman into the army vehicle.

While investigating the claim we found that the incident is from August 16, 2024. We found some posts from that time where it was claimed that the Army abducted an unknown Garo girl. Subsequently we found a post on a Facebook page named ‘Kalbela Khagrachhari’. The post was made to contradict the claim that the army had abducted and taken away a Garo girl. The post described the abduction claim by the army as a rumor and wrote, “This is basically today’s incident. The incident took place in the Machang area on the way to Sajek, the girl is an indigenous Garo girl. Local sources say that she was going to Sajek with a Muslim boy, and later the villagers saw and caught the girl. Later, when the hill terrorists tried to kill her, the army rescued her in a naked state.”

Further investigation led us to a post from the day of the incident was found on a Facebook account named New Ton Chakma, where several pictures of locals sitting and blocking the path of the army were attached and it was written— “This incident occurred in the Machalong Brij Para area when a group of Bengali boys were taking a girl to the Sajek Tourism camp to do some work. The people of Machalong area stopped the girl to safely reach her family, later the army came and forcibly took the girl from the people, the people of Machalong area are holding a blockade in protest. The people of the area say that the girl is not safe in the army camp, they demand that the girl be handed over to the people. However, the girl’s address has not been found yet.”

On the same day, another Facebook account post about the incident , which included a video of a roadblock, and wrote, “When a Garo woman from city went to Sajek tourism with Bengali boy, the local people of the Machalong area stopped the girl and tried to detain her. Later, the army came and took the girl away. The local people blocked the road to get the girl back.”

Another post was found on a Facebook account named Jaya Rani Tripura on the incident, where she wrote, “Tribal girl attacked by hill terror group on her way to Sajek with her Bengali friend. The army rescued the girl. But- why don’t hill girls get freedom? When will the torture of hill women by holding them hostage stop? We are hill women, won’t we be free? We don’t want tribalism! We don’t want to be Bengalis! We want to live freely.”

The information in these posts matches the narration in the earlier post on the ‘Kalbela Khagrachari’ Facebook page.

Later, a detailed post about the incident from that day was found on a Facebook account named Abdul Jabbar Sohag. Since the post is quite lengthy, here is a summary:

“On August 15, a travel group of 42 members was attacked by tribal people while heading to Sajek. A few kilometers after the Machalong Army Camp, a motorcycle stopped their vehicle and inquired about a tribal girl who was traveling with the group. The group explained that the girl had registered for the tour from Dhaka, her home is in Mymensingh, and she was visiting Sajek with one of her Bengali female friends. Despite their explanations, the tribal individuals insisted on taking the girl and refused to accept their reasoning. (They could not accept that a tribal girl was traveling with Bengali boys and demanded that the girl be handed over to them)

Eventually, the indigenous people attacked with sticks, attempting to abduct the girl. When the army intervened to protect them, the attackers targeted the army personnel as well. During the attack, the Garro girl was dragged, beaten, and abused, even being partially stripped. Once the girl became unconscious, the attackers released her, but continued to obstruct the group’s efforts to get her into the vehicle. On their way back to the Machalong Camp, the indigenous people launched another attack involving 100-200 people. The army’s vehicle was also blocked, and several members of the group were seriously injured in the attack.”

Later, we found several reports on the incident. One report states, “A group of miscreants tried to kidnap a female tourist in the Machalong BrijPara area on the way to Sajek in Rangamati. However, the tourist was saved by the army. At that time, four more members of the tourist group were attacked by the miscreants. The victim of the kidnapping attempt was the tourist Marlina Rema. Her home is in Haluaghat, Mymensingh.

Sources said that the woman was on her way to Sajek with seven friends from Dhaka on Friday. On the way, some miscreants stopped their vehicle in the Brijpara area of Machalong. At that time, they tried to drag the woman out of the vehicle and take her away.

Upon receiving the information, an army patrol team quickly arrived at the scene. Seeing the presence of the army patrol team, the army arrested one of the miscreants while they were fleeing. At that time, about 100-150 villagers present in the area surrounded the army vehicle. They snatched the kidnapper and prevented the rescued tourist from being taken to a safe place.

At this point, the villagers beat up four more tourists who were trying to prevent the kidnapping. Despite the opposition of the agitated villagers, the army was able to safely take the tourist, who was the victim of the kidnapping attempt, to a nearby camp and provide first aid to the injured tourists. The tourist was then safely handed over to the police in the presence of local dignitaries. Later, the police took steps to hand over the tourist to her family.”

Therefore, the claim of torture and abduction of Buddhist or Garo women by the Bangladesh Army is false.

Sources

  • Rumor Scanner’s analysis 
  • Media Report on the Incident 
  • Eyewitness statement
  • Facebook posts analysis

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