Hill Voice, 14 February 2023, Special Correspondent: Tomorrow (15 February) is the 51st anniversary of the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS), the only political party that has passed the ordeal in the movement to establish the rights of the Jumma people. The party which started the movement for self-determination and autonomy of Jumma peoples. The party under the leadership of which organized one of the world’s indigenous fighting guerilla forces ‘Shanti Bahini’. The party under whose leadership the progressive ‘Jumma Nationalist Movement’ was born.

On the occasion of the golden jubilee and 51st anniversary of PCJSS, discussion meetings will be held tomorrow in various upazilas including Rangamati district headquarters and in Dhaka. On the other hand, on this occasion, a discussion will be held on 17 February 2023 at 2:00 PM at JM Sen Hall in Chittagong under the chairmanship of Ushatan Talukder, Vice President of PCJSS.

Tomorrow (February 15), at 3:00 PM, a discussion meeting will be held at Biswa Sahitya Kendra of Banglamator in Dhaka. It will be presided over by Sadhuram Tripura, the central member of PCJSS and member of CHT Regional Council. President of Workers Party pf Bangladesh Rashed Khan Menon MP, writer and journalist Abu Syed Khan, General Secretary of Communist Party of Bangladesh Ruhins Hossain Prince, Dhaka University teacher Professor Mesbah Kamal, General Secretary of Bangladesh JASAD Nazmul Haque Pradhan, general secretary pf Oikya NAP Asadullah Tarek, Joint General Secretary of Bangladesh Adivasi Forum Gajendra Nath Mahato at el will be present as guest speakers.

It is to be noted that under the leadership of the great revolutionary leader Manabendra Narayan Larma, this PCJSS was formed in Rangamati on 15 February 1972, with the aim of establishing the right of self-determination of the Jumma peoples and establishing a progressive society under the initiative of the rights-seeking and progressive sections of the Jumma people.

Soon after its formation, the PCJSS put forward a four-point demand including autonomy with its own Legislative Assembly to the government of newly independent Bangladesh in order to protect the national existence and existence of the homeland of the Jumma peoples. But Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the then prime minister of the Bangladesh government and the architect of independent Bangladesh, rejected this demand of PCJSS contemptuously and suggested to become Bengalis. This created deep frustration and anger among the leadership of PCJSS as well as Jumma peoples. The military wing of PCJSS was formed on 7 January 1973, which gradually became known as ‘Shanti Bahini’.

Later, after the assassination of Bangabandhu on 15 August 1975, when the chaos of the military regime descended on the politics of Bangladesh, all the ways of the democratic movement were blocked. As a result, the PCJSS led by Manabendra Narayan Larma and his brother Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma alias Santu Larma was forced to go into hiding and start an armed struggle.

Under the leadership of Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma, after passing through many conspiracies and ups and downs of the movement for more than two decades of armed struggle, PCJSS compelled the government of Bangladesh to enter the historic ‘Chittagong Hill Tract Accord’ with the Sheikh Hasina-led Bangladesh government on 2 December 1997. But in the past 25 years, the government has implemented some aspects of the mountain agreement, but the basic issues have not come forward in full and proper implementation. Even after this government has been in power for almost 14 years, no effective initiative has been seen to implement the Accord. In addition, the government is taking one after another conspiratorial steps against the CHT Accord and against the interest of Jumma peoples.

The PCJSS alleges that the government is currently subverting the process of implementation of the CHT Accord by resorting to military force instead of peaceful and political solutions aiming at conspiring to ethnic cleansing of the Jumma peoples.

In such a situation, PCJSS has called to join the greater movement for the proper implementation of CHT Accord as well as rights to self-determination of the Jumma peoples.