{"id":5871,"date":"2025-12-26T22:22:32","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T16:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chtnews.com\/english\/?p=5871"},"modified":"2025-12-27T14:25:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T08:25:45","slug":"updf-calls-on-people-to-be-prepared-for-struggle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chtnews.com\/english\/2025\/12\/26\/updf-calls-on-people-to-be-prepared-for-struggle\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDF Calls on People to Be Prepared for Struggle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Staff Correspondent, CHT News<\/strong>
\nFriday, 26 December 2025<\/p>\n

The United People\u2019s Democratic Front (UPDF) has called on people to organize themselves and remain prepared for future struggles.<\/p>\n

This call was made in a message issued by the Central Committee of the UPDF, addressed to its members and the general public, on the occasion of the party\u2019s 27th anniversary on Friday, 26 December 2025.<\/p>\n

The verbatim text of the UPDF Central Committee\u2019s message is given below:
\n________________________________________<\/p>\n

Message to Members and the People on the Occasion of the 27th Anniversary of the UPDF<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear brothers and friends,<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, \u201c26 December,\u201d is an unforgettable day in the history of our struggle. On this day in 1998, our beloved party, the United People\u2019s Democratic Front (UPDF), was formed.<\/p>\n

On this memorable occasion, we extend to you our spirited revolutionary greetings. We pay deep respect and homage to the memories of the heroic martyrs who sacrificed themselves in the struggle to establish rights. We express our heartfelt affection and warm love to those comrades who were seriously injured and left permanently disabled due to attacks by enemies and traitors at different stages of the movement. We express our solidarity with those who are currently imprisoned.<\/p>\n

On this auspicious day, we also convey our greetings to all those \u2013 both in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and in different parts of the world \u2013 who have, in various ways, supported and contributed to the struggle for the rights of the people. Above all, we extend our sincere thanks and revolutionary salutations to those who, following the directives of the party\u2019s top leadership, continue to carry out their duties steadfastly at their respective posts by resisting the combined attacks and subversive activities of enemy forces and national traitors.<\/p>\n

Comrades and friends,<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 27th anniversary of the UPDF is being observed at a time when, despite the announcement of the schedule for the 13th National Parliamentary Election, the environment required for a free, fair, and neutral election is absent in reality. The situation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts is particularly dire.<\/p>\n

The UPDF\u2014one of the main stakeholders in the election\u2014along with its leaders, activists, and supporters, is passing its days in extreme hardship, having been displaced from homes and localities and burdened with cases and arrest warrants. Army operations are still continuing in UPDF-controlled areas. At the same time, harassment by identified groups backed by the army is ongoing.<\/p>\n

Setting up camps in schools and kyangs (Buddhist temples) in remote villages, the army\u2014together with newly masked armed terrorist groups\u2014has been raiding homes, harassing, humiliating, and physically assaulting UPDF leaders, activists, and supporters, and vandalizing household items and cooking utensils. In some places, mobile phones and money have also been looted.<\/p>\n

In Kaukhali, Nareichari, and Panchari, extortion, ransom, and threats against ordinary people by an armed criminal gang are taking place with the direct assistance of a corrupt section of army officers.<\/p>\n

Just as fascist Hasina played a staged electoral game by keeping the UPDF and other major political parties outside the electoral process, no meaningful departure from that practice is visible even under the caretaker government led by Dr. Yunus. Naturally, serious doubts, suspicion, and uncertainty have arisen among the people about whether a fair election will be held on schedule, what direction the country will take, and how the ongoing situation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts will unfold.<\/p>\n

In particular, following the announcement of the election schedule for the 13th parliament, the shooting of a candidate in Dhaka with intent to kill and his subsequent death while undergoing treatment in Singapore; the rampage of extremist communal fundamentalist groups centered on that incident; vandalism and arson at newspaper offices in Dhaka; attacks on cultural institutions and destruction of musical instruments; the medieval-style killing of Dipu Das, a garment worker from the Sanatan (Hindu) community, in Bhaluka, Mymensingh, on false allegations of religious defamation, followed by his body being burned in a frenzy and the circulation of that incident on social media\u2014have all created fear and terror among ethnic and religious minority communities. These incidents do not bode well for the country\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

This wave of extremist mob violence has also raised its poisonous hood in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. A Pakistan-aligned section of army officers is openly backing these extremist communal groups. They are summoning people to army camps and instructing them whom to vote for. A blueprint has been devised to ensure the electoral victory of a convicted criminal, notorious as the \u201cButcher of the Mahalchari Rampage.\u201d Emerging from the filth of this vile conspiracy are reactionaries and collaborators among the hill people\u2014social outcasts and enemies of the masses, akin to sewer waste. A headless group of so-called social workers is also joining this destructive, anti-national-interest game.<\/p>\n

In this context, the people of the hills must remain vigilant against conspiracies to install extremist communal forces through the upcoming election.<\/p>\n

Dear friends,<\/strong><\/p>\n

The caretaker government led by Dr. Yunus has not only failed to govern the country but has clearly taken the side of extremist communal forces. As a result, extremist communal fundamentalist groups are growing stronger by the day. Progressive-minded individuals and organizations, liberal thinkers, writers, intellectuals, journalists, and cultural activists are all deeply concerned about the current situation. Most frightened and existentially threatened are ethnic nationalities and religious minority communities.<\/p>\n

Even if a government is formed through the 13th National Parliamentary Election, there is no guarantee that the \u201cHill Tracts Accord\u201d will be implemented. Moreover, the BNP is a party that carried out military repression in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and facilitated settler infiltration, seeking to turn the hill peoples into minorities and weaken them in their own homeland, thereby destroying their existence.<\/p>\n

Over the past twenty-eight years, the \u201cHill Tracts Accord\u201d has not been implemented. Although the Awami League, the party that signed the Accord, remained in power for one and a half decades in a row, it failed to implement it. The likelihood of the Awami League returning to state power in the next decade is slim. In short, the future of the \u201cHill Tracts Accord\u201d is uncertain, and the existence of the hill peoples is facing a grave threat.<\/p>\n

The ruling clique continues all conspiracies to weaken the people\u2019s capacity for resistance. Much damage has already been done due to the deception and betrayal of the ruling class and the political shortsightedness of the Jana Samhati Samiti. This must not be allowed to happen again. Now is the time to rise up. There is no benefit in lying idle and lamenting over a dead accord.<\/p>\n

There is no alternative path before the people of the hills other than struggle and resistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cSelf-reliance is the real strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our Call on the 27th Anniversary:<\/p>\n