Easy availability of illegal arms in CHT

The widespread availability and use of illegal arms in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) is alarming. The district’s porous border is a conduit for illicit weapons in the region. Its contiguity to the troubled areas in Myanmar and India’s northeast provides handy sources of illicit weapons.The situation in the CHT is deteriorating fast, where both political parties and organised crime are taking full advantage of the easy availability of illicit weapons that find their way in through the porous border. Not only has it led to armed confrontation between rival factions, those for and against the peace accord, but on a more general scale, gunfights, killing, abduction and extortion have spiralled upwards at an alarming rate.We would like to emphatically state that unless this trend is checked, the flow of illegal small arms could have a disastrous effect on the overall security situation in the country as a whole. In fact, taking stock of casualties over the last one year due to violence, the majority involved illegal firearms. Their easy availability points to the problem in terms of the overall human security nationwide, especially in light of the coming general elections.In this context, it is impossible to separate the issue of narcotics since that is directly linked to illegal trade in illegal arms; hence both issues must be addressed simultaneously. Increasing cooperation with neighbours, putting into effect strategic management of the border etc, are steps that should be taken urgently if we wish to tackle this menace effectively.