Sajek Tourism Reels as Blockade Cancels 60 Percent of Resort Bookings

🏞 A sense of panic prevails in Sajek Valley and its surrounding areas in Rangamati, a day after clashes and a reported gunfight over a road blockade — and the tourist centre that was thronging with visitors during Durga Puja has taken on a desert look after the local administration closed it following Thursday's violence. For a destination that has become one of Bangladesh's most recognisable domestic tourism brands, the shutdown is a blunt economic blow delivered at the best week of its year.

🚧 Vehicular movement on the Sajek-Rangamati road remained halted for two consecutive days since Thursday, with protesters burning tyres at different points as part of their road blockade. Most shops in the Ujo Bazar area have remained closed since Thursday's incidents, and many villagers have left the area fearing possible raids and interrogation by law enforcement agencies. Whenever locals come to the road, they face interrogation and scrutiny by law enforcers, which installs fear among the villagers, said a resident of Ujo Bazar, seeking anonymity. We have left our village and shops in fear, and many of our villagers have taken shelter in their relatives' houses, said a leader of the Ujo Bazar Traders' Association, wishing not to be named.

📌 The blockade was enforced by the Sajek Gano Odhikar Rokkha Committee and the Sajek Karbari Association — the village headmen's association — to press three demands, including the removal of an armed group linked with the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS). Bijoy Kanti Chakma, member secretary of the Sajek Gano Odhikar Rokkha Committee, said around 100 people of their group were injured in Thursday's incident, eight of them critically, and claimed law enforcers were obstructing them from taking the injured anywhere for treatment. We are trying to arrange treatment for the injured on our own, and we will continue our blockade, he said.

👮 Muhammad Abdur Rakib, superintendent of Rangamati police, said public movement was thin and vehicular movement stopped due to the blockade, adding that those who fled their homes and shops would not face any problem returning. Tofazzal Hossain, officer-in-charge of Sajek Police Station, said the situation was normal although traffic remained suspended, and that joint operations by the army and police against armed groups were underway. No case had been filed in connection with Thursday's violence as of around 7:00pm yesterday.

🗳 A blockade with a chronology

📅 The standoff is now in its second fortnight. The two organisations first enforced an indefinite blockade on October 11, then suspended it for two days after submitting their demands to the local administration and receiving assurances. When the demands went unmet, they resumed the blockade on October 15, pausing again during Durga Puja. On Wednesday afternoon they announced a fresh blockade from 6:00am Thursday — and hours later, around 3,000 tourists stranded on the road from Sajek in Rangamati had to be escorted to Khagrachhari after clashes between blockade supporters and law enforcers, followed by a reported gunfight between United People's Democratic Front (UPDF) members and security forces. The army and police jointly conducted the evacuation, in which five army personnel and two police members were injured, the SP said on Thursday. Besides removal of the armed group, the protesters' other demands include ending death threats against innocent people and stopping law enforcement agencies from searching ordinary people's homes.

🏨 The tourism economy counts the cost

💸 The commercial damage is concentrated and fast-moving. Tourism businesses are suffering financial losses as resort and cottage bookings are cancelled amid the blockade — a bitter reversal after a large turnout of tourists had filled Sajek during the Durga Puja holidays. According to the Sajek Resort-Cottage Owners' Association, around 120 resorts and cottages in Sajek can accommodate over 3,000 tourists, and previous bookings are now being cancelled en masse.

😫 Our resort was fully booked from before Durga Puja until October 25, said Mishu Dey, owner of Sajek Ruilui Holiday Resort. However, following the blockade and clashes on Thursday, around 60 percent of our bookings have been cancelled — and if the situation does not return to normal soon, the remaining bookings are also likely to be cancelled. Motijoy Tripura, joint general secretary of the Sajek Resort-Cottage Owners' Association, warned that continued cancellations and a decline in tourist visits could cause a major downturn in the tourism sector. Several tourism-related organisations formed a human chain in Khagrachhari town demanding the reopening of the Sajek tourist centre.

💰 The episode exposes how fragile hill-district tourism remains as a business. Sajek's rise — from remote village to bucket-list destination drawing weekend crowds from Dhaka and Chattogram — has created a local economy of resorts, restaurants, transport operators, guides and handicraft sellers, most of it informal and all of it dependent on one road and a perception of safety. A single week of unrest wipes out revenue that these micro-businesses cannot recoup, and every cancellation wave makes banks and investors warier of financing hill-district tourism infrastructure.

🌏 For Bangladesh's broader tourism ambitions, the irony is sharp: the country is simultaneously promoting hill-tract destinations to grow a services sector that could earn foreign exchange and jobs, while periodic insecurity keeps reminding visitors — domestic and foreign — that access can vanish overnight. Tourism professionals have long argued that destination security, community consent and predictable administration matter more than marketing budgets; Sajek's silent, shuttered resorts this week are the argument made for them.

🔭 What happens next will be decided by the negotiations over the blockade committee's demands, the pace of the security operations, and the administration's willingness to guarantee safe access. Reopening the road is the first milestone; restoring traveller confidence — the asset actually being destroyed here — will take far longer, and it is the one input no resort owner can buy back.