The national minority students of the Chittagong Hill Tracts on Friday held different rallies in Rangamati and Khagrachari to protest at removing of graffiti at various places in the hills, highlighting struggle of the hilly people.
They also demanded to ensure them with constitutional recognition as 鈥榠ndigenous鈥�.
Under the banner of Adibasi Chhatra Samaj of Chittagong Hill Tracts, students held the protests in front of the district administration office premises in Rangmati and at Chengi Square in Khagrachari.
More than two thousand students of Rangamati and Khagrachari participated in the protest rallies with different festoons and banners.
They chanted various slogans, including 鈥楽tudents and youth unite and fight鈥�, 鈥業ndigenous should be given constitutional recognition鈥�, 鈥楩ight against corruption鈥�, 鈥楤rothers and sisters, come and fight鈥�, and 鈥楲and rights should be given鈥�.
Discrimination has not been removed from the hills even though everyone claimed that discrimination removed across the country, the students alleged.
They also demanded to abolish military rule in the CHT region.聽
Claiming that new conspiracies were being made about the CHT, the students also said that hilly people were evicted from their own lands in the name of tourism.
They said that the hilly people were blocked from freedom of speech for ages and were branded as terrorist and separatists when they spoke out about their fundamental and political rights.
Law enforcers attacked the students who were painting and arrested a student while writing and painting graffiti on the walls of Khagrachari city on August 12, they alleged.
On August 10, students drew graffiti of Hill Women鈥檚 Federation organising secretary Kalpana Chakma, who was allegedly abducted on June 12, 1996 by a group of armed men, including a junior army officer, from her house in Rangamati.
The graffiti was removed from the wall the next day.