Tougher agitation in CHT after Feb 23

The PCJSS is holding a 'grand rally' at Rajbari in Rangamati on that day.

Bangladesh Adibashi Forum, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Shamajtantrik Dal, Chhatra Union Jubo Union and organisations sympathetic to PCJSS will join the rally, according to its leaders here. PCJSS chief Jiotrirndriya Bodhipriyo larma alias Santu Larma and other leaders will address it.

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PCJSS has launched a mass campaign programme up to the grassroots level to make the rally a success, they said.

Their demands include appoint of an indigenous person to the post of Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board (CHTDB) by removing ruling BNP legislator Wadood Bhuiyan, full implementation of the CHT accord, withdrawal of security forces from the hills and inclusion of an indigenous person as a minister in the cabinet.

PCJSS, an organisation of indigenous people, signed the landmark Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) peace agreement in 1997 with the then Awami League, will ended decades of insurgency in the hills. But the agreement is yet to be fully implemented, they said.

"We want peace and development of the area and so came on the open", a front ranking leader told this correspondent yesterday seeking anonymity.

Army, VDP (Village Development Police), ANSAR and APBN (Armed police Battalion) are now deployed in the CHT to maintain security.

In the last few days, security has been beefed up in the three hill districts following abduction of a hotel manager.

The PCJSS and its front organisations enforced a series of 'road blockade and hartal' programmes in the CHT since it started agitation after the arson at Mohatchhari in Khagrachhari district on August 26 last year that left one person killed, 25 people injured and nine women raped. About 400 houses of tribesmen were burnt. PCJSS blamed Wadood Bhuiyan for the attack.