B'desh imposes travel ban to hills as sectarian violence claims five lives

DHAKA BANGLADESH on Sunday imposed a travel ban on three southeastern hill districts amid sectarian tensions between local ethnic minority communities and Bengali settlers in the region, which has left five people dead and several injured.

The deputy commissioners of the three districts, bordering India and Myanmar, in separate but similar statements, requested tourists not to visit the region, called Chattogram Hill Tracts (CHT), from Oct 8-31, citing "unavoidable grounds".

CHT is the abode of over a dozen, mostly Buddhist majority, ethnic minority groups, while the ban came days after the monks scrapped their scheduled Kaathin Chibor Dan or 'offering of yellow robes to monks' festival, citing security reasons.

The festival was scheduled to be held in mid-October.