Tribal students demand army camp withdrawal from CHT

Tribal people have again demanded the withdrawal of military camps from the Chittagong Hill Tracts following a clash with army and police personnel in Khagrhachharhi’s Dighinala.

The tribal students in the capital Dhaka raised the demand at rally on the Dhaka University campus on Monday, a day after the confrontation.
 
The government had promised the withdrawal of military camps from the hill area in the CHT Peace Accord signed with the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti (PCJSS) in December, 1997.
 
Chhatra Union general secretary Lucky Akter expressed support for demand at the rally organised by the Paharhi Chhatra Parishad and Hill Women’s Federation.
 
At least 13 people, including eight soldiers, were injured in a clash between the army and police personnel, on the one hand, and local tribal people, on the other, demanding the relocation of the BGB battalion at Babuchharha.
 
The tribal students also took out a procession from Aparajeyo Bangla to Raju Memorial Sculpture, where the rally was held, protesting the ‘military and police action’.
 

They shouted different slogans demanding withdrawal of the military camps, full implementation of the CHT Peace Accord and the return of land rights to the hill people.

Paharhi Chhatra Parishad vice-president Supen Chakma said: “There would have been no problems for the non-Bengali tribal people had the 1997 Peace Accord been implemented, there would have been no murders.”

Shanti Bahini, military wing of the PCJSS, ended a decades-long insurgency following the Peace Accord but the tribal people are not happy with the agreement’s partial implementation.

Accusing the government of delaying the accord’s full execution, Supen Chakma said: “Relocate the military camps from the Chittagong Hill Tracts and implement the Peace Accord immediately.”
 
“Otherwise, the Jumma people won’t return home if they go to jungle again,” he warned the government.
 
Lucky Akter urged everyone to avoid incidents that might trigger conflict in the CHT
 
Paharhi Chhatra Parishad Dhaka city unit’s organising secretary Sulav Chakma, school and library affairs secretary Nipun Tripuran, and member Suman Larma, and Hill Women’s Federation’s Ankhi Chakma addressed the rally, among others.