Home Minister of Bangladesh orders Bandarban KNF operation

Asaduzzaman Khan, the Home Minister of Bangladesh, announced plans to launch an operation targeting the Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF) due to recent bank thefts in Bandarban.

Bandarban used to be a very calm place, but recently, the armed separatist group has done terrible things, like robbing banks.

People who do these illegal things will be caught and punished. He said there will be more checks to see if anyone else is responsible for these crimes.

The home minister said this while in Ruma Upazila in Bandarban on Saturday.

When reporters asked what would happen if banks were found to have been careless during the crimes, the minister said that would happen.

Men with guns are said to have attacked a checkpoint in Bandarban's Alikadam upazila on Friday.

This comes after thefts, kidnappings, and a fight between the Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF) and the police in Ruma and Thanchi upazilas in the past few days.

They also took the manager of Sonali Bank's Ruma Upazila branch hostage on Tuesday and tried to steal Tk1.5 crore from the branch's vault.

They took the bank manager hostage because they couldn't get the money. The manager was later freed.

On Wednesday, they also broke into Sonali Bank and Krishi Bank stores in Bandarban's Thanchi upazila and stole money.