Dhaka: At least 15 indigenous people, including seven women, were killed and 126 physically tortured last year, according to a human rights report.

While most of the physical assaults were carried out by non-state actors such as influential Bengalis or Bengali miscreants, the state actors such as members of security forces and law enforcement agencies, in many cases, played either supportive or passive role at the time of committing such crimes, the report says.

‘The Human Rights Report 2014 on Indigenous Peoples in Bangladesh’ prepared by Kapaeeng Foundation was revealed at a discussion held at the Daily Star Centre here on Friday.

Kapaeeng Foundation executive director and one of the editors of the report Pallab Chakma presented the key findings of the report at the discussion.

Ain o Salish Kendra executive director Sultana Kamal and general secretary of Bangladesh Indigenous Peoples Forum Sanjeeb Drong, among others, spoke at the programme.

The report found that the frequencies of violation of civil and political rights against indigenous peoples have further intensified during the year under review while land grabbers carried out at least 7 communal attacks on indigenous people, and destroyed their houses and property.

As many as 58 indigenous houses in the Chittagong Hill Tract were set afire and burned to ashes by Bengali miscreants in presence of law enforcement agencies and security forces.

About 500 people of 150 indigenous families migrated to Myanmar from Bandarban district in the face of mounting insecurity, while at least 300 indigenous people of 60 families in plain land were forced to leave for neighbouring India due to communal attacks.

At least four Buddhist temples in the CHT and one Hindu temple belonging to the indigenous people in plains were ransacked and defiled in 2014.

It was also reported that a so-called Laden Group took away 20 Mro and Tripura children from Lama upazila to Dhaka in the name of providing education. But these children were later converted to Islam.

About the situation of the indigenous people’s rights to land and natural resources, the reports says around 3,911 acres of lands in the CHT were taken over by state and non-state actors in 2014 while 84,647 acres of lands are currently under the process of occupation and acquisition.

Forest Department intensified its process to acquire more than 84,542 acres of lands declaring them as reserved and protected forest, while Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) acquired lands violating customary land rights of indigenous people and provisions of the Hill District Councils Act 1998.

According to the report, about 102 indigenous families, including two from plain land, were evicted from their ancestral homesteads, while 886 families, including 300 families in plain, are currently facing eviction.

A total of 153 families, 89 from plain and 64 from the CHT, over the year, came under attacks by land grabbers who organised these assaults to grab lands belonging to indigenous peoples.

In 2014, a total of seven women and girls were killed after rape. A total number of 21 rape and gang-rape cases were reported from across the country with 12 of them taking place in the CHT while nine such crimes from the plain.

The severe forms of human rights violation against indigenous women and girls were physical assault, molestation, sexual harassment with the total number standing at 62 in 2014.

The report recommended taking effective measures to fully implement the CHT Accord based on a roadmap with timeframe and priorities set; amending the CHT Land Dispute Resolution Commission Act; forming a separate land commission for indigenous people of the plain to facilitate restoration of their dispossessed lands, stopping communal violence and physical abuse against indigenous women and girls; and providing constitutional recognition to the indigenous peoples as per international human rights instruments ratified by the government.