Foreigners' entry to hills restricted

The government has decided to restrict the foreigners' access to the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

If anyone with a foreign passport now wants to visit Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban districts, they will have to submit an application to the home ministry at least a month before the intended visit.

"The home ministry will give the permission based on positive reports of the intelligence agencies concerned," states a government order, containing 11-point decisions on the CHT affairs.

As for the diplomats, they will have to seek permission from the foreign ministry.

The order, signed by State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and dated January 18, 2015, has recently been sent to the CHT district administrations.

The Daily Star has obtained a copy of the order, issued following a meeting chaired by the state minister on January 7.

Until now, foreigners needed permission only from the district administration concerned. But there was no timeframe for submitting the applications.

Under the new government measures, if any foreigner wants to talk to a member of the tribal communities in the region, they will have to do so in presence of army, BGB or local administration personnel.

The order contained the meeting minutes in which the representative of an intelligence agency was quoted as saying: "Foreign nationals travel to the CHT as guests of some locals if they can't secure permission from the ministry or the authorities concerned ... Their main objective is to have the tribal communities recognised as the indigenous."

The decisions on foreigners' entry have already taken effect, Superintendent Devdas Bhattacharya of Bandarban police told this paper yesterday.

The home ministry also requested the CHT affairs ministry to submit a report on the implementations and outcomes of "$160million-development projects by the UNDP in the last 10 years".

In other decisions, the NGO Affairs Bureau has been asked to change the name of the CHT Commission, replacing "Commission" with some other name as "it has no legal ground."

Mizanul Haque Chowdhury, deputy commissioner of Bandarban, yesterday said he had received the order on Tuesday.

"Our duty is to implement the orders," the DC said.