chtnews.com
News No. 147/2010, October 14, 2010
THE Hill Students Council (PCP), a front organization of the United Peoples Democratic Front (UPDF), marked yesterday the 18th anniversary of death of Bharadwaj Moni Chakma, who was killed during a settler attack in Dighinala in 1992.
To mark the day, the PCP held a commemoration meeting and a candle light vigil, and released fire balloons in his honour.
The commemoration meeting was held at an open space near his monument in Dighinala Sadar Upazila at 11am.
Presided over by Alo Jibon Chakma, president of PCP Dighinala unit, the meeting was also addressed, among others, by Bharadwaj Muni Chakma’s son Doya Mohan Chakma, social worker Ripon Chakma, UPDF leader Uday Chakma, DYF convenor Mithun Chakma, PCP president Aongay Marma and HWF general secretary Konika Dewan.
Before the meeting, UPDF and its front organisations placed floral wreaths at the altar of the monument of Bhradwaj Muni Chakma and observed one minute’s silence.
Bharadwaj Muni Chakma is regarded as the first martyr in the democratic movement of the Jumma people initiated by the PCP in the late eighties.
He was 70 years old when he came to participate in a rally organised by PCP in Dighinala in 1992.
The rally came under attack by illegal settlers which led to his death on the spot.
At the commemoration meeting, the speakers said the hopes with which Bharadwaj came to participate in the rally have not yet materialised. “Our homeland is still under military occupation, and the settlers continue to grab our lands.”
They accused the government of trying to destroy the full autonomy movement of the UPDF.
“Eighteen years have passed since Bharadwaj Muni Chakma was murdered. It is a shame that his killers still remain at large.” Mithun Chakma said.
The speakers demanded that the government takes immediate action to bring his killers to justice, withdraw the ban imposed on public meetings and rallies in Khagrachari following the 23 February settler attacks, declare CHT as a special autonomous area, withdraw the army from CHT, provide constitutional recognition to the separate national entity and customary land rights of the Jumma people and rehabilitate the settlers outside the CHT.
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