DHAKA, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) — Five suspected insurgents were killed in a clash with the Bangladesh Army in the country’s southeastern Chittagong hill region on Saturday.

According to a local police official, “bullet-riddled bodies of five armed men of the tribal group – Jana Sanghati Samiti (JSS) in Baghaichhari sub-district of Rangamati district, some 293 km from the capital Dhaka, were found after the clash.”

“Bangladesh Army soldier Liakat Ali was also injured in the clash,” said the police official who declined to be named.

“Three other members of the group have been arrested with sophisticated arms and ammunition,” he added.

According to the official, Bangladesh Army personnel raided an area in the district at about 5:00 a.m. local time on Saturday ( 2300 GMT Friday) on a tip-off about a JSS hideout.

“The insurgents opened fire and the army personnel retaliated, leaving five dead on the spot,” he said.

Saturday’s encounter between the army and JSS, a former rebel group who has been waging an insurgency since 1975 for political autonomy in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) bordering India and Myanmar, was the first of its kind since 1997.

The bitter insurgency ended in 1997 after JSS leaders signed a pace accord with the Bangladesh government.

Despite the peace accord, JSS reportedly continued to have a bloody feud with another hill-based organization UPDF.