A quarter century ago, Modhumala Chakma says it was impossible to leave her house in the evening and walk around the nearby hills because they were controlled by a tribal insurgent group seeking autonomy in southeastern Bangladesh.
“It was a difficult time,” says the 60-year-old farm worker from an ethnic minority in the Shuvolong area of Rangamati, one of three districts bordering India and Myanmar collectively called Chittagong Hill Tracts. “We lived in constant fear of being raped or killed.”
