PCP to Observe Sixteenth Founding Anniversary in Khagrachari

The Pahari Chattra Parishad (Hill Students Council) will hold its 16th founding anniversary on 20 May in Khagrachari. All out preparations are now underway to make the event a success.

To mark the day the PCP will organise a discussion and a rally in the town. Abul Kashem Fazlul Haq, editor of Lokaiyat, a Bengali research journal and professor of Bengali department, Dhaka University, will inaugurate the programme while Dr. Meghna Guhathakurta, professor, Department of International Relations, Dhaka University will be present as guest of honour. Besides, leaders of national student's organisations from Dhaka and Chittagong will take part in the programme.

A printed poster announcing the founding anniversary programme has already been circulated. Most of the central committee leaders of the PCP are now in Khagrachari busy organising the programme. PCP General Secretary Dipankar Tripura, who is also in Khagrachari, said if the district administration and the army don't plot to foil the programme, it will be a grand success. He also hopes that the JSS too do not collude with the army to disrupt the programme like the way it has done in the past.

The Hill Students Council, a front organisation of the United Peoples Democratic Front (UPDF), was founded on 20 May 1989 to rally the Jumma students of the Chittagong Hill Tracts under one single umbrella organisation. The horrifying Longudu Massacre of 4th May in that year was the immediate cause for the university based Jumma students body leaders to meet in Dhaka and form one single student body for all the Jumma students. The following day, i. e. 21 May, the PCP held a silent procession on the streets of Dhaka in protest against the Longudu Massacre. This was the beginning of the journey of the PCP.

However, the journey was not easy and strewn with rose petals. It had many ups and downs, trials and tribulations. The army left no stone unturned to nip the PCP in the bud. Scores of its members were arrested on frivolous charges. Its meetings and rallies were routinely attacked and disrupted. Communal Bengali settlers' organisations were floated to counter the advance of the PCP. But none of these tactics of the army and the ruling elite of Dhaka worked and the PCP grew from strength to strength.

When all these attempts failed, the army cobbled together a few drug addicts and thugs to set them against the PCP. This resulted in the formation of the Mukhosh Bahini (masked force) in Khagrachari in 1995. Backed by the army or Khagrachari Brigade to be more specific, the Mukhose Bahini let loose a reign of terror in the whole of Khagrachari district. The members of the PCP have been the primary targets of this terrorist organisation. However in spite of all sorts of military and administrative backing, their terror campaign could not last long. The people of Khagrachari rose up in rebellion and fought them out through democratic means. In the end the army had to decommission it.

On the internal and ideological front the PCP had to fight against all sorts of opportunistic tendencies. The first battle with these elements was fought in 1991 during its first central conference in Dhaka. This conference completely routed these elements and elected Prasit Bikash Khisha as its president. However such opportunistic tendency once again raised its ugly head at the fig ends of government - JSS negotiations in 1997. The JSS maliciously incited and fomented division within the PCP to smooth its way to surrender. The opportunist elements and trouble makers openly advocated capitulation and denunciation of the movement on behalf of the JSS. But 99 per cent of the Jumma students refused to buy their theory or to succumb to their ill-intended propaganda. Thus, when every attempt of the JSS to hijack the PCP with the help of these sorts of people failed, and when the PCP resorted to purging and expelled them from the organisation, the JSS leadership felt nervous. Finally, to salvage its credibility the JSS leaders organised a fake conference of the expelled members of the PCP which is often referred to as Dui Numberi PCP or phony PCP.

Afterwards, the PCP co-sponsored a party preparatory conference in Dhaka in 1998 and helped found a new party - the United Peoples Democratic Front (UPDF). The PCP is now campaigning for full autonomy under the able leadership of this new party.

The PCP represents the progressive forces of the Jumma students and upholds the ideals for which numerous fellow Jumma fighters shed their blood.

Prepared by Press Section, Publications and Publicity Department, United People's Democratic Front (UPDF), May 11, 2005, Dhaka.