Shantu Larma threatens movement if CHT accord not implemented

"A movement similar to that taken up for the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) accord perhaps will be required to implement the accord," Jyotidrindra Bodhipriyo (Shantu) Larma, president of Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity (PCJSS) has commented.

Shantu Larma was speaking at a discussion on the CHT accord, held at the Daily Star Centre in the city yesterday. The meeting was organised by Bangladesh Indigenous People's Forum (BIPF) and Kapaeeng Foundation, with support from Manusher Jonno Foundation. Shantu Larma said that both armed and unarmed movement had been carried out for the CHT accord.

Speaking as chief guest, Shantu Larma said that the accord would be implemented only if the person holding all power in the country took bold initiative. There would be obstacles, but if the government used this to delay the process, then the accord would never be implemented. The people of CHT would no longer sit idle, he said.

Explaining a media report which quoted him as saying that the accord had been signed simply to grab their arms, Shantu Larma said he had actually been questioning why the accord hadn't been implemented 17 years after being signed. So the question would naturally arise as to whether it had been made simply to grab their arms.

Presenting the keynote paper, Robayet Ferdous, teacher of mass communication and journalism at Dhaka University said that a sort of Bengali-isation, militarisation and extreme Islamisation was being carried out in the hills.

Rabindranath Soren, president of the national indigenous council, chaired the meeting. Others speaking at the programme were Ushatun Talukdar MP, Pir Fazlur Rahman MP, Manusher Jonno Foundation's executive director Shaheen Anam, former Information Commissioner Sadeka Halim, and Prothom Alo deputy editor Sohrab Hossain.