When troubles brew in Arakan bordering CHT

By Nava Thakuria

Narinjara, 2 October 2026

Troubles are brewing in the Chattogram Hill Tracts (CHT) in south Bangladesh, bordering India’s Tripura and Mizoram along with Myanmar’s Rakhine (Arakan) province, as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government in Dhaka lately constituted three high-level committees with an aim to address all long-standing challenges embracing the disturbed CHT region of the south Asian nation.

A large group of Bangladeshi intellectuals with civil society representatives and various Asian rights bodies opposed the initiatives with the caveat that it would only increase militarisation and incidents of human rights violations over the indigenous people in the hills.

In a recent joint statement, many prominent Bangladeshi nationals asked Dhaka to refrain from any fresh attempts to establish bureaucratic rule in the CHT and initiate to resolve all kinds of crises through political discussions with the stakeholders. The statement, signed by Iftekharuzzaman (Transparency International Bangladesh), Shireen Parveen Huq (Naripokkho), human rights activists Sultana Kamal and Nur Khan, economist Anu Muhammad, senior advocate ZI Khan Panna, photographer Shahidul Alam, Dhaka University professors Sumaiya Khair, Samina Luthfa with others noted that the failure to implement the peace accord even after 29 years has kept the region burning.

Mentionable is that the Tarique Rahman government on 10 September 2026 issued three gazette notifications announcing the formation of three committees on CHT affairs. National Committee, headed by PM Rahman, has been mandated to determine priority policies for the underdeveloped region.

The 19-member committee, also comprising a number of ministers, is empowered to coordinate with different implementing government agencies and finalize the national strategy for the CHT. The other two committees (Executive Committee and Advisory Committee) will be responsible for recommending policies on overall development, counterterrorism, border protection and communal harmony in the CHT.

Earlier, Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) has accused the Bangla government of undermining democracy as it failed to ensure peace and security in the CHT. New Delhi-based ACHR insisted on demilitarising the CHT as it was highlighted in the CHT peace accord. ACHR director Suhas Chakma alleged that the appointment of the head of Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI, Bangladesh’s military intelligence agency) as the member secretary to National Committee on the CHT affairs indicates ill intention of Rahman government.

As the CHT is the homeland of majority indigenous peoples of Bangladesh, the initiative raised serious concern over the assigned role to the DGFI director general. The new-found principle of equality in the CHT may be interpreted as a weapon to undermine the existing safeguards and preferential measures for the indigenous population by giving so-called equal rights to majority Muslim settlers implanted in the CHT between 1979 and 1983. Chittagong hills used to have over 97 percent non-Muslim population when the CHT was included in East Pakistan during the partition of India.

Later a large number of Pahari families were displaced with the construction of Kaptai hydroelectric dam in the 1960s. Various agencies estimated that no less than 1,00,000 individuals were evicted by the project and many of them entered India through the Tripura border. When Bangladesh was born in 1971, the Chittagong-based tribal leaders urged Dhaka for genuine autonomy, but it was thoroughly rejected.

Adding more troubles to the Chittagong locals, over 4,00,000 landless Bengali Muslims were given settlement in the CHT with the practice of land-grabbing. More than one hundred thousand Bangladeshi soldiers were also sent for their protection.

The changing demography where the Muslim settlers almost overrode the indigenous-tribal population (around 49 %) compelled the Pahari people to agitate against the authorities in Dhaka. Though initially started with democratic ways, the movement led by Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PJSS) soon turned violent.

Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman and later dictator Hussain Mohammad Ershad tried to resolve the issue with discussions, but their initiative did not succeed. Bangladesh Awami League leader Hasina, during her first premiership, signed the CHT accord on 2 December 1997 with an aim to end the prolonged armed conflicts.

But irony is that the Awami League, though made repeated promises, had failed to implement the peace accord. After returning to power again in 2009, Hasina took the same tricks to cheat the non-Muslim families in the CHT. Unfortunately, the current BNP regime in Dhaka has shown the same negligence in dealing with the CHT affairs.