In recent days, many social media users have been making posts with the hashtag #Bawmlivesmatter.
The campaign is aimed at drawing attention to the plight of the Bawm indigenous community in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
The Bawm are one of the smallest indigenous groups in Bangladesh, residing mainly in Bandarban.
For decades, they have faced issues of land dispossession, militarisation, and lack of political representation.
What began as scattered posts highlighting arrests and displacement has grown into a collective online movement demanding justice and protection for one of the indigenous groups.
According to media reports, following a series of bank robberies by the so-called Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF), an armed group, in April 2024, an operation was launched in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), where over 100 members of the indigenous Bawm community were detained.
Though the crackdown aimed to capture KNF insurgents, locals claimed most of those arrested were civilians, students, elders, pastors, and even children, many held without formal charges.
According to New Age, an arrestee – Lal Tleng Kim Bawm, died in Chattogram Central Jail on 15 May, 2024, after being detained during the military crackdown, and Sang Mawi (Lalsang Mawi Bawm) passed away on 1 June, 2025, just days after being released on bail following months in custody.
Van Lal Rual Bawm died on July 17, 2025, after three months of detention, marking the third custodial death of a Bawm individual in less than three months, media reports said.
Following their deaths, two hundred thirty-five citizens, including academics, researchers, journalists and activists, demanded a judicial investigation in a written statement on 3 June 2025.
According to a report by Amnesty International, at least 126 Bawm people have been arbitrarily arrested since April, which shockingly includes toddlers and infants.
In response to the oppression against the indigenous group, criticism began to pour all over social media.
A campaign under hashtags like #BawmLivesMatter ,#FreeTheBawm, #EndCollectivePunishment, #JusticeForBawm, #IndigenousRights gained momentum in August, calling for the immediate release of detainees and an end to state violence.
Various Facebook pages and social media groups initiated the campaign, urging people across Bangladesh and beyond to participate in raising awareness about the ongoing injustice.
It was marked by participants posting photos holding placards with the message "500 Days in Jail Without Trial," which quickly spread across platforms like Facebook and Instagram, using hashtags such as #FreeBawmCivilians, #EndCollectivePunishmentOfIndigenousBawm, and #BawmLivesMatter.
The call to action saw a significant response, especially from indigenous communities and human rights advocates, who shared their solidarity and amplified the message. The widespread participation helped bring the plight of the Bawm people into broader public focus, drawing attention to the systematic repression and ethnic persecution faced by the community. It reflects a rising public outcry against the use of force and the erosion of indigenous rights in Bangladesh.
While human rights organisations like Amnesty International have called for an end to the crackdown, the hashtag movement reflects a grassroots push from ordinary citizens who believe silence is no longer an option.
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