Student and youth organizations in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, held a public outreach campaign and distributed leaflets on October 13, demanding the abolition of three committees that they say contradict the 1997 Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Peace Accord and calling for the full implementation of the agreement.
The campaign began with a brief rally at Paltan intersection in Dhaka at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Participants subsequently distributed leaflets to pedestrians and members of the public along the route from Paltan through Bijoynagar to the area near the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) central office in Naya Paltan.
The participating organizations criticized the government, saying that nearly 29 years after the signing of the CHT Peace Accord in 1997, the agreement had yet to be fully implemented. They also argued that the continued influence of bureaucracy and military authority was making the resolution of problems in the region increasingly difficult.
Khan Asaduzzaman Masum, president of the Bangladesh Jubo Union, said that although there had been hopes of ending long-standing exploitation and deprivation in the hill region, the government was creating new crises instead of pursuing a political solution.
According to leaflets distributed during the campaign, the Cabinet Division issued a notification on September 10, 2026, establishing three separate committees: the National Committee on Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs, headed by the prime minister; an Executive Committee, headed by the home secretary; and an Advisory Committee, headed by the chair of the monitoring committee.
The organizations alleged that assigning the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) responsibility for providing secretarial and infrastructural support to these committees directly violated the original Peace Accord.
The organizations also presented eight demands to the BNP-led government, calling for lasting peace and a political resolution in the hill region. Their demands include abolishing the three committees that allegedly contradict the accord, establishing a monitoring committee for implementing the agreement in accordance with its provisions, withdrawing the non-indigenous state minister from the Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs, and reconstituting the ministry’s advisory council.
Source: Hill Voice.
