Hill organisations on Thursday and Friday went out on demonstrations against ‘malicious’ campaigns against Kalpana Chakma, who disappeared in 1996, and remained untraced till date, and set fire to copies of daily Ittefaq for carrying such reports.
The Hill Women’s Federation and Pahari Chhatra Parishad staged protests in Khagrachari town and upazila headquarters in the district and at places of Rangamati, including Baghaichari and Kududkchari.
The protesters set fire to copies of Ittefaq for giving ‘false’ and ‘fabricated’ information on Kalpana Chakma in a report which it attributed to an intelligence agency.
They said such falsehood had maligned Kalpana Chakma, an activist who had disappeared on June 12, 1996 following a raid on her house at New Lailyaghona of Baghaichari by the security forces.
The hill people accused the military and Village Defence Party of abducting Kalpana and a case remained pending with a Rangamati court in this connection.  
Kalpana’s brother Kalindi Kumar Chakma in a statement on Friday condemned the report of Ittefaq and rejected its claim that she was staying in
the north-eastern Indian state of Arunachal. He said he was a witness to his
sister’s abduction.
Kalindi said lieutenant Ferdaus and VDP members Nurul Huq and Saleh Ahmed had come to their house on the night of June 12, 1996 and dragged him, his sister Kalpana and brother Lalbehari out. He said that hearing gunshots the two brothers had run away. As Kalpana failed to flee, the security people abducted her.
‘Attributing the information to intelligence agencies, the report claimed that disappearance of Kalpana was stage-managed and she was living in the Indian state of Arunachal.
We condemn such false and malicious campaign,’ he said.
‘My question is whether Ferdaus and the two others were arrested and interrogated.  If not, how could they become certain that she was staying in Arunachal? How could they get such information without questioning the people who had tortured us and abducted Kalpana,’ he asked.
‘We have been waiting for long 18 years for our sister. Nobody could give us her whereabouts. If they are so certain about Kalpana’s location they should return her to us,’ he said adding that the people who had joined in the movement with Kalpana wanted to know the truth about her abduction.
Kalindi also sought prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s intervention in tracing Kalpana.