The World - News from June 26, 1989

Tribal rebels in Bangladesh burned a village and fired warning shots, but more than half a million people in the remote Chittagong Hill Tracts region turned out to vote for three new district councils. Soldiers guarded streets and polling stations after reports that the rebel Shanti Bahini (Peace Force) had set up a special squad to disrupt the election. The government last February created the councils in an effort to restore peace to the region, scene of a 17-year-old tribal insurgency over demands for autonomy. Results were not expected until today.