The Khagrachhari administration yesterday formed a four-member committee to investigate Tuesday's racial violence that ensued after a schoolteacher was beaten to death for allegedly raping an eighth grader.

Meanwhile, the mother of the girl, who is from Tripura community, filed a case accusing Abul Hasnat Muhammad Sohel Rana, the dead teacher, of raping her daughter, said Abdul Baten Bhuiyan, officer-in-charge of Khagrachhari Police Station.

The girl was still in hospital, said a doctor.

Police filed another case accusing 400 to 500 unnamed people of battery and obstruction of police duties, he added.

An additional district magistrate is leading the probe committee, said Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Shahiduzzaman.

Officials visited Khagrachhari Bazar and the affected areas, and after a meeting with community representatives, the administration around 3:00pm lifted Section 144, which prohibits any gathering of four or more people.

Locals and officials said Rana, a teacher of Khagrachhari Technical School and College, was beaten to death by 10-15 young men who, in a video footage of the incident, appear to be from the indigenous community.

Additional Superintendent of Police Tofiqul Alam yesterday said the situation was calm but people were still in fear.

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Khagrachhari: Tension runs high after mob kills a teacher

Describing how Tuesday's incident unfolded, Tofiqul said, "I, the officer-in-charge of the police station, UNO Sujan Chandra Roy and other officials went to the school after receiving allegations that a student was raped.

"We arrested and interrogated the teacher. We were preparing to take him to the police station when a group of young men attacked us and beat up the man. Officers were injured trying to save him."

A murder case will be registered over the matter, he said.

UNO Sujan said, "They attacked us suddenly. The incident occurred before the army arrived."

Tension between Bangalee and indigenous people flared up after the news of Rana's death spread, and soon attacks on properties and people began even as the authorities imposed Section 144.

Shops, houses, and a hospital were attacked, looted and torched in different areas including Mahajanpara and Pankhaiya Para.

On February 25, 2021, teacher Rana was sent to jail for trying to rape a 10th-grader. He returned to work after he was released.

On September 18, a Bangalee man named Muhammad Mamun was allegedly beaten to death in Khagrachhari after he crashed a motorcycle he had stolen. Later, Mamun's wife filed a murder case against three, including a local Awami League leader.

Racial violence gripped the town after that. On September 19, nearly 100 shops were torched in Dighinala and three indigenous people were killed.

The next day, violence spread to Rangamati, where several homes were vandalised, a Buddhist temple was ransacked, shops were set on fire, and a college student named Anik Kumar Chakma was beaten to death by a mob in broad daylight.

A total of five cases were filed in the districts in connection with the incidents.