Bangladesh security forces often resorted to mass detention and torture of the helpless villagers and left many of them crippled for life. In the late 1970s President Zia sponsored migration of Bangladeshi settlers into the CHT, providing land grants, cash and rations. This programme was not made public at the time, and its existence was denied by the representative of the government. Now the government acknowledges that there was a programme of sponsored migration. Bangladeshi settlers, with the connivance of the almost totally Bengali administration, have been able to take over land and even whole villages from the Jummas.
Forcible conversion is considered as a state sponsored method of assimilation.
Al-Rabita , a Saudi government funded NGO, is the main Islamic missionary organisation active in the region, backed by the military, it is entrusted with the Islamisation of the region. Apart from proselytisation, there have been religious persecution in the form of violation and destruction of religious places of the Jummas by the Bangladesh military. In 1986, within a period of eight months 54 Buddhist temples have been destroyed and 22 Hindu temples were burnt down by the Bangladesh military. Since 1980 there have been 13 major instances of massacre of the Jummas by the Bangladeshi settlers and the Bangladeshi security personnel. The Bangladesh Army and the settlers invaded the Jumma villages of Feni valley and murdered hundreds of Jummas.