Imran Rahman, Arab News

DHAKA, 11 April 2004 — Thousands of villagers in Bagmara sub-district in northwestern Rajshahi are fleeing their homes in fear of a bloody confrontation between a Maoist guerilla outfit and the recently formed Muslim Rakkha Mujahedeen Oikya Parishad.

The two militant groups are already arrayed against each other and violence may break out anytime, a report reaching Dhaka said yesterday. The Purba Banglar Communist Party has been active in Bagmara and the surrounding areas for more than five years, killing some 50 people. Particularly active in recent days, police cannot contain their armed activities.

At the beginning of April, the Muslim Rakkha Mujahedeen Oikya Parishad appeared on the scene with the declared aim of expelling the PBCP from the area.

Parishad militants killed one young man and injured more than 50 people, including a Union Parishad member and a leader of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the student front of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party. They also roughed up a sub-inspector of Bagmara police station.

The militant group fist surfaced with the killing of Osman alias Babu, 30, a suspected cadre of the PBCP, at Polashi village on April 1. Since then, it has been patrolling in groups to hunt down PBCP men. Its cadres wear face masks, offer prayers five times a day and exhort local people to be honest and pious during street rallies. They have also been seeking information on PBCP men.

Parishad paramilitaries have been beating people regardless of political affiliation who they say are corrupt.

The Parishad has established an unofficial camp at Hamirkutsa village and is conducting operations from there, locals said, creating a de-facto curfew in the area.

The openness of its activities suggests that the group is connected with police or other government agencies, though Bagmara police denies this. Bagmara sub-district executive officer Subal Bose Moni said he was not aware of any such organization.

According to superintendent of police Rajshahi, Masud Mia, a section of people, exasperated by the murderous activities of PBCP men, were organizing their own resistance. “They are patrolling with bamboo sticks to save themselves,” he said.

PBCP men meanwhile attacked the house of Sonadanga Union Parishad chairman Azharul Haque last Thursday night.

They laid siege to the building but Haque escaped. The PBCP men fired shots to disperse villagers who came to the party leader’s rescue, wounding a villager.