Troubles are brewing in the Chattogram Hill Tracts (CHT) in southern Bangladesh, which borders India’s Tripura and Mizoram and Myanmar’s Rakhine (Arakan) state. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government in Dhaka has recently constituted three high-level committees to address the long-standing challenges facing the disturbed region.
A large group of Bangladeshi intellectuals, civil society representatives and various Asian rights bodies have opposed the initiative. They warn that it would only increase militarisation and human rights violations against the indigenous people of the hills.
In a recent joint statement, many prominent Bangladeshi nationals asked Dhaka to refrain from any fresh attempt to establish bureaucratic rule in the CHT. They urged it instead to resolve the crises through political dialogue with the stakeholders.
The statement was signed by Iftekharuzzaman (Transparency International Bangladesh), Shireen Parveen Huq (Naripokkho), human rights activists Sultana Kamal and Nur Khan, economist Anu Muhammad, senior advocate ZI Khan Panna, photographer Shahidul Alam, and Dhaka University professors Sumaiya Khair and Samina Luthfa, among others. It noted that the failure to implement the peace accord, even after 29 years, has kept the region burning.
It may be mentioned that the Tarique Rahman government issued three gazette notifications on 10 September 2026, announcing the formation of three committees on CHT affairs. The National Committee, headed by Prime Minister Rahman, has been mandated to determine priority policies for the underdeveloped region. The 19-member committee, which also includes a number of ministers, is empowered to coordinate with the government agencies concerned and finalise the national strategy for the CHT.
The other two committees, the Executive Committee and the Advisory Committee, will be responsible for recommending policies on overall development, counterterrorism, border protection and communal harmony in the CHT.
Earlier, the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) had accused the Bangladeshi government of undermining democracy by failing to ensure peace and security in the CHT. The New Delhi-based body insisted on demilitarising the region, as envisaged in the CHT peace accord. ACHR director Suhas Chakma alleged that the appointment of the head of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI, Bangladesh’s military intelligence agency) as member secretary of the National Committee on CHT affairs indicates ill intent on the part of the Rahman government.
Since the CHT is the homeland of most of Bangladesh’s indigenous peoples, the role assigned to the DGFI director general has raised serious concern. The newfound principle of equality in the CHT may also be interpreted as a weapon to undermine the existing safeguards and preferential measures for the indigenous population, by giving so-called equal rights to the majority Muslim settlers implanted in the CHT between 1979 and 1983.
The Chattogram hills had over 97 per cent non-Muslim population when the CHT was included in East Pakistan during the partition of India. Later, a large number of Pahari families were displaced by the construction of the Kaptai hydroelectric dam in the 1960s. Various agencies estimate that at least 1,00,000 people were evicted by the project, and many of them entered India through the Tripura border.
When Bangladesh was born in 1971, tribal leaders from Chattogram urged Dhaka to grant genuine autonomy, but the demand was thoroughly rejected.
Adding to the locals’ troubles, over 4,00,000 landless Bengali Muslims were settled in the CHT, accompanied by widespread land-grabbing. More than 1,00,000 Bangladeshi soldiers were also sent to protect them.
The changing demography, in which Muslim settlers almost overtook the indigenous tribal population (around 49 per cent), compelled the Pahari people to agitate against the authorities in Dhaka. Though the movement began democratically, it soon turned violent under the leadership of the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PJSS).
Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman and, later, dictator Hussain Muhammad Ershad tried to resolve the issue through discussions, but their initiatives did not succeed. Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina, during her first premiership, signed the CHT accord on 2 December 1997 with the aim of ending the prolonged armed conflict.
But the irony is that the Awami League, despite repeated promises, failed to implement the peace accord. After returning to power in 2009, Hasina resorted to the same tricks to cheat the non-Muslim families in the CHT. Unfortunately, the current BNP regime in Dhaka has shown the same negligence toward CHT affairs.
