BNP men patronise criminals to foil CHT peace accord

Awami League President Sheikh Hasina speaks at a view exchange meeting with the leaders of Chittagong Hill Tracts at the party's Dhanmondi office in the city yesterday. PHOTO: STAR

At a closed-door meeting with Hasina at her Dhanmondi office, presidents and general secretaries of Bandarban, Khagrachhari and Rangamati informed her that a group of ruling BNP men are involved in arms smuggling to foil the peace accord, said meeting sources.

They said the ruling party men with the help of administration established a reign of terror and occupied thousands of acres of khas land in the hill districts.

Criticising the AL leader Kalparanjan Chakma, who was the minister-in- charge of hill tracts during the AL regime, at least eight leaders of different upazilas of Khagrachhari district told Hasina that Kalparanjan is no more active in politics and he did not look after the AL workers when the ruling BNP men conducted repression on them during its present tenure.

Guimara upazila AL President Jahangir Alam and General Secretary Memong Marma, General Secretary of Manikchhari upazila MA Jabbar and General Secretary of Panchhari upazila Pahar Miah requested Hasina to nominate Kujendralal Tripura, Samir Dutta Chakma, Jatindralal Tripura and Jahadul Islam in the upcoming election to ensure party's victory.

Rangamati leaders also demanded party tickets for politically active candidates in the next election.

Out of three hill district constituencies, the AL bagged only Bandarban constituency in last general election.

Addressing the meeting Hasina said they brought normalcy in three hill districts by signing the peace treaty.

These districts remained isolated for two decades from other parts of the country, she added.

The AL chief said a new era of development was ushered in for the deprived people of the region following the treaty.

“But unfortunately all potentials for developing the CHT were destroyed after the 2001 election,” she said, adding the coalition government resorted to repression in the hilly areas again to destroy the treaty.

Hasina said the AL solved the problems of hilly districts politically, but the BNP had always tried to solve the problems using armed forces.

"As per the treaty we could bring back the tribal refugees from India and rehabilitated them in their own place," said the former prime minister who signed the peace treaty on December 2 in 1997.

She said her government took a Tk 2000 crore project for massive development in the region, but the present government has looted the public money in stead of implementing the project.

The AL president said the tenure of the present regime is tainted by anarchy, killings, rape, conspiracy and corruption.

They (government) have looted thousands of crores of taka after coming to power through vote rigging in 2001, she added.

Hasina said the BNP-Jamaat coalition is again out to rig the next election, but the countrymen should resist such evil motive.

She urged the party leaders and activists to guard against the conspirators out to destroy the country's democracy.

Senior AL leaders including General Secretary Abdul Jalil, Syed Johra Tajuddin, Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Obaidul Quader were present at the meeting.