Terrorist Organization Profile: United People's Democratic Front (UPDF)..

লিখেছেন লিখেছেন বাংলার মানব ০৪ জুন, ২০১৩, ১০:৫১:৫২ রাত

the United

People's Democratic Front (UPDF) is a

nationalist terrorist group fighting for the full

autonomy of the Chittagong Hill Tracts of

Bangladesh. The UPDF fights on behalf of

several indigenous tribes collectively known as

the Jumma. Considered a faction of the

Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity

(PCJSS), the UPDF comprises three activist

groups: the Hill Student Council, Hill People's

Council and Hill Women Federation.

Disgruntled members of the PCJSS (another

Bangladeshi militant outfit) formed the UPDF

due to their former group's acceptance of the

Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord. The accord was

signed on December 2, 1997 by the

Bangladesh government and the PCJSS and

sought to end more than two decades of

fighting between indigenous tribes, ethnic

Bengali settlers, and the Bangladeshi

government presence in the region. Shortly

after Bangladesh gained independence from

Pakistan in the early 1970s, fighting erupted

when the Bangladesh government supported

the resettlement of Muslim Bengalis into the

largely Buddhist Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Indigenous tribes felt threaten by the forced

imposition of the Bengalese language and

culture on their daily lives and began attacking

settlers. Government troops, brought into the

region to quell sectarian violence, exacerbated

the problem. According to the provisions of

the Accord, the Chittagong Hill Tracts became

a semi-autonomous region within Bangladesh.

The UPDF asserts that the agreement failed to

address the fundamental demands of the

indigenous Jumma people (full autonomy) and

feels the PCJSS betrayed their cause.

In order to demonstrate their opposition to the

Accord and their desire for full autonomy, the

UPDF conducts the majority of its attacks

against the PCJSS and other supporters of the

Accord. The UPDF and PCJSS have engaged in

retributive kidnappings, extortions, and

murders since 1997. In addition, the UPDF is

suspected of having conducted the kidnapping

of three international workers in an attempt to

halt the development seen as necessary to the

Bangladesh government's quest for regional

legitimacy. Two Danish and British engineers

working in the area were held for over a

month before being freed in a Bangladeshi

army raid in 2001.

বিষয়: বিবিধ

১১৫৩ বার পঠিত, ০ টি মন্তব্য