Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti
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Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti
পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রাম জনসংহতি সমিতি |
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| Abbreviation | PCJSS |
| Founded | 1973 |
| Armed wing | Shanti Bahini |
| Ideology | Autonomy for the indigenous tribes of the Chittagong Hill Tracts |
| Seats in the Jatyo Sangsad |
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The Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (Bengali: পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রাম জনসংহতি সমিতি; United People's Party of the Chittagong Hill Tracts; abbreviated PCJSS) is a political party formed to represent the people and indigenous tribes of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh. Since its inception in 1973, the PCJSS has fought for autonomy and the recognition of the ethnic identity and rights of the indigenous tribes of the Hill Tracts. Its military arm, the Shanti Bahini was used to fight government forces and Bengali settlers in the Hill Tracts. A peace accord was signed in 1997 led to the disarmament of the Shanti Bahini and enabled the PCJSS to return to mainstream politics.
The roots of the PCJSS can be traced to the Hill Tracts Students' Association and the Parbatya Chattagram Upajatiya Kalyan Samiti (United People's Welfare and Development Party of the Chittagong Hill Tracts) that were organised in the 1960s in what was then-East Pakistan. The organisations agitated on behalf of the 100,000 native peoples displaced by the construction of the Kaptai Dam, seeking rehabilitation and compensation. After the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, representatives of the Chittagong Hill Tracts such as the Chakma politicians Charu Bikash Chakma and Manabendra Narayan Larma sought autonomy and recognition of the rights of the peoples of the region. Larma and others protested the draft of the Constitution of Bangladesh, although the Constitution recognised the ethnic identity but Larma and others wanted full sovereignty and separation from Bangladesh. The government policy of recognised only the Bengali culture and the Bengali language and designating all citizens of Bangladesh as Bengalis. In talks with Hill Tracts delegation led by Manabendra Narayan Larma, the country's founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman insisted that the ethnic groups of the Hill Tracts adopt the Bengali identity. Sheikh Mujib is also reported to have threatened to forcibly settle Bengalis in the Hill Tracts to reduce the native peoples into a minority.
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