DHAKA, July 26: At least three people were killed and another was wounded in a shootout on Saturday morning between rival political groups claiming to represent ethnic minorities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

The gunbattle between the two groups, Parbattaya Chattagram Jana Sangtati Samity (PCJSS) and United Peoples Democratic Front (UPDF), happened at a village in the Rangamati district.

According to police, some 30 to 35 armed men belonging to the PCJSS swooped on the village firing gunshots in a bid to take control of the area. The UPDF activists present at the village also retaliated by firing back at their rivals.

The UPDF is a breakaway faction of the PCJSS, which signed a peace agreement with the Bangladesh government in 1997 to put an and to a decades-long secessionist conflict. The UPDF, which demands full autonomy for Chittagong Hill Tracts, had rejected the peace agreement.