Witnesses said up to 25 armed cadres of the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity (PCJSS) launched attacks on their rival members of the United People's Democratic Front (UPDF) in Shapmara village in Naniarchar upazila and abducted the villagers apparently for sheltering UPDF men.

Police also blamed the attack and abduction on the PCJSS that got bogged down in clashes with the UPDF after the 1997 peace deal that ended two decades of bush war in the CHT (Chittagong Hill Tracts).

The PCJSS men drove their rivals out of the village in the fierce firefight that came at about 9:00am before the abduction prompting the army to launch sweeps in the district in search of the abductors.

Those kidnapped at gunpoint are Horomoni Chakma, 36, Uzzal Chakma, 17, Doelmoni Chakma (age unknown), Shutichandra Chakma, 28, Tunga Chakma (age unknown), Probhat Ranjan Chakma, 28, Parashmoni Chakma, 16, Roy Mitra Chakma, 46, Jagatjyoti Chakma, 33 and Bodhitra Chakma, 40.

Police recovered the body of Shushil Bindu Chakma, Ukkhyonchhari unit general secretary of the CHT Hill Students Council, who was killed after abduction in Borkol upazila Monday night.

The local gangster, Ainul Islam, is believed to have led the gang that killed the 25-year-old in deep forest on his way home, says a press release of PCJSS's student chapter.

Police found the body floating on the Karnaphuli river.

The student organisation yesterday brought out a procession in town and staged a rally, chaired by its district unit president, Asheen Chakma, on the local Shilpakala Academy premises.

ABDUCTION IN THE CHT

Armed men believed to be supporters of the PCJSS abducted 20 family members and relatives of some leaders of UPDF on December 23 in a fresh flare of political violence in the CHT.

Four people, two of them truckers, were abducted in Khagrachhari on January 1.

Clashes between the two outfits have left more than 300 indigenous people dead and several hundred have been abducted since 1997.