Shawdesh desk:

Workers Party of Bangladesh president Rashed Khan Menon on Tuesday said that they would force the government to complete the implementation of the Chattogram Hill Tracts treaty.

Rashed Khan Menon said this while addressing a rally which was presided over by poet and journalist Abul Momen in Laldighi area in Chattogram on Tuesday afternoon.

Parbatya Chattogram Agreement Implementation Movement organised the rally marking completion of 25 years of signing of the treaty.

‘We had to fight for a long time before we could begin this peace process. But right now, I am worried. Currently, the hill tract is unstable. In addition, there is concern that the instability in the hills would spread to Chattogram and the rest of the country,’ Rashed Khan Memon said.

‘You have seen, for the past few months, the extremist fundamentalists have been taking armed training from an organisation in the Chattogram Hill Tract to carry out attacks inside the country,’ he said.

‘It was hoped that through the implementation of this treaty, Bangladesh would set an example in establishing the rights of indigenous ethnic groups. But unfortunately it did not happen. We have urged the government to take steps in this regard many times. Now we will force the government to complete the implementation of the Chattogram Hill Tracts treaty,’ Menon said.

Workers Party Chattogram general secretary Sharif Chowhan conducted the rally while Communist Party of Bangladesh president Shah Alam, Socialist Party of Bangladesh general secretary Bazlur Rashid Firoz, among others, addressed the rally.

The AL-led government signed the peace pact on December 2 in 1997, for ending armed conflicts between the ethnic communities and security forces, ensuring protection of their land rights, and the revival and conservation of their cultural uniqueness.

The accord was also aimed at rehabilitating the people displaced due to conflicts and repatriation of those who had left the country, limiting the presence of security forces and setting up regional and district councils headed by representatives of the ethnic communities.