History of Chittagong Hill Tracts Conflict
1960's: Parbatya Chattagram Upajati Kalyan Sawanata organized in East Pakistan Hill Tracts what is now modern day Bangladesh. Group organized by a few college students who were around the age of 19 among them were Manabendra Narayan Larma and Charu Bikash Chakma, future leaders of the political party that represented the Chittagong Hill Tracts tribes in the Pakistan Parliament in the 1960's.Political group wanted autonomy and recognition of the ethnic identity and basic human rights for the indigenous tribes of the Hill Tracts.
1972:The People's Republic of Bangladesh becomes an internationally recognized sovereign state with Sheik Mujib Rahman as president.
1973: Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti formed with Manabendra Narayan Larma as leader and founder of the new party with Charu Bikash Chakma as co-leader both indigenous tribal members of the prominent Chakma tribe.The political party contained similar goals as the political party that represented the tribes in the Pakistan parliament but encouraged and advertised the sovereignty of the Chittagong Hill Tracts area so that the indigenous people are free from the jurisdiction off the newly-founded government of Bangladesh.
1975:President Sheik Mujib Rahman passed laws to emphasize nationalism throughout all citizens of Bangladesh as an initiative to bring the country together after the war. Laws primarily focused on the Chittagong Hill Tracts tribe and erasing their culture such as their language and religion and replaced it with Bengali and Islam. This laws were mandated by strict requirements of fluency in the bengali and implementing the islamic religion into every day life such as islamic studies in schools, prayer times in the workplace, and a rise in mosques around the area. In addition to the bane national laws, Sheik Mujib Rahman was suspected to be migrating Bengalis into the Chittagong Hill Tracts to lower the political power of the indigenous tribal people. This ultimately led to the formation of the Shanti Bahini and the overall conflict in the region.
1977:Formation of the Shanti Bahini (Peace Arms) by the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti under the leadership of Manabendra Narayan Larma (also the founder of the party).
1978:Shanti Bahini trained in neighboring Tripura province of India also attained weapons and arms suspected to be illegally.
1978-1997:fighting between the Shanti Bahini and the Bangladesh arms force. At first, the fighting was between Shanti Bahini and police force with few gunshots and grenades but gradually increased to a full fledged pseudo-war between the Bangladesh army and navy and the Shanti Bahini where multiple people were killed every day.At the end the total death count was tremendously large at a total of 1667 fatalities as well as 15,432 wounded.
1997(Climax):Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed and Manabendra Narayan Larma's younger brother Larma signing the Peace Accord that ultimately brought down the armed tension of the conflict. As a result of the conflict the Shanti Bahini formally stopped the fighting with the Bangladeshi army.
1972:The People's Republic of Bangladesh becomes an internationally recognized sovereign state with Sheik Mujib Rahman as president.
1973: Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti formed with Manabendra Narayan Larma as leader and founder of the new party with Charu Bikash Chakma as co-leader both indigenous tribal members of the prominent Chakma tribe.The political party contained similar goals as the political party that represented the tribes in the Pakistan parliament but encouraged and advertised the sovereignty of the Chittagong Hill Tracts area so that the indigenous people are free from the jurisdiction off the newly-founded government of Bangladesh.
1975:President Sheik Mujib Rahman passed laws to emphasize nationalism throughout all citizens of Bangladesh as an initiative to bring the country together after the war. Laws primarily focused on the Chittagong Hill Tracts tribe and erasing their culture such as their language and religion and replaced it with Bengali and Islam. This laws were mandated by strict requirements of fluency in the bengali and implementing the islamic religion into every day life such as islamic studies in schools, prayer times in the workplace, and a rise in mosques around the area. In addition to the bane national laws, Sheik Mujib Rahman was suspected to be migrating Bengalis into the Chittagong Hill Tracts to lower the political power of the indigenous tribal people. This ultimately led to the formation of the Shanti Bahini and the overall conflict in the region.
1977:Formation of the Shanti Bahini (Peace Arms) by the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti under the leadership of Manabendra Narayan Larma (also the founder of the party).
1978:Shanti Bahini trained in neighboring Tripura province of India also attained weapons and arms suspected to be illegally.
1978-1997:fighting between the Shanti Bahini and the Bangladesh arms force. At first, the fighting was between Shanti Bahini and police force with few gunshots and grenades but gradually increased to a full fledged pseudo-war between the Bangladesh army and navy and the Shanti Bahini where multiple people were killed every day.At the end the total death count was tremendously large at a total of 1667 fatalities as well as 15,432 wounded.
1997(Climax):Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed and Manabendra Narayan Larma's younger brother Larma signing the Peace Accord that ultimately brought down the armed tension of the conflict. As a result of the conflict the Shanti Bahini formally stopped the fighting with the Bangladeshi army.