Circle leaders of Chakma, Bomang and Mong on Tuesday led rallies protesting at what they alleged conspiracy to abolish the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regulation 1900 considered essential to protect customary rights of national minority communities in the region.
The demonstrations were held in front of the deputy commissioner’s office in Rangamati, the District Press Club in Bandarban and District Press Club in Khagrachari in the morning.
The ethnic community leaders also sent copies of a memorandum to the prime minister through the deputy commissioners of three hill districts—Rangamati, Khagrachari and Bandarban—for instructing the attorney general to stand in favour of the 1900 CHT regulation in related cases and therefore protect the rights of the CHT people, said a press release signed by the CHT Headman Network general secretary Shanti Bijoy Chakma.
Chanting slogans such as ‘Our customs, our institutions, our decision’, the protesters demanded government steps to stop ‘conspiracy’ to abolish the CHT regulation.
The written memorandum was also read out at the protest rallies in the hill districts, said the release.
The circle leaders underlined the need for the enforcement of the CHT regulation to protect the customary rights of the national minority communities in the hill districts of Rangamati, Khagrachari and Bandarban, home to various ethnic groups.
In a case filed by Rangamati Foods Products Limited in 2003, a High Court bench ruled that the CHT regulation was a ‘dead law’.
As a result, the CHT District Council and Regional Council which are the institutions created by the CHT treaty 1997, and the customary rights protected under the CHT regulation faced crisis.
On appeal against this judgment, a full bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on November 22, 2016 ruled that the regulation was an effective and valid law.
The Supreme Court in another case on December 2, 2014, gave a similar ruling.
Later in 2018, two Bengali residents of Khagrachari appealed for a review in the Supreme Court against the two SC judgments.
The Appellate Division is scheduled to hear on July 26 whether it will accept the review petition.