1 decade of signing of CHT agreement

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The dissatisfaction of the people of Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh is a long standing crisis. It started mainly in 1950s when the then Pakistan government erected a hydroelectric dam across the river Karnafuly inundating 54,000 of paddy land of the inhabitants therein and utterly dislocating more than 100,000 people which drastically and adversely affected the socio-economical life of the region. Consequently, the anguish and dissatisfaction started to transform in to arm struggle which continued for more than two decades as the newly born Bangladesh government also denied of recognizing the right of the indigenous people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Guerrilla fight, bloodshed, loss of lives, violation of human rights, land grabbing of local people took place frequently for a long period of time that shattered the whole region. Finally, a historic agreement (popularly knownas “CHT Peace Agreement”) was signed between PCJSS (regional political party of the CHT) and the Awami League led government of Bangladesh on 2 December 1997 bringing an apparent end of bloody armed clash. This historic day is observed every year by the PCJSS with spontaneous participation of thousands of indigenous people. The pictures are of celebration of ‘CHT agreement signing’ in the year 2010 in Rangamati.