Two activists of the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity (PCJSS) were gunned down in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The victims were young Chakma men, the indigenous people of the area who have long sought an independent state. Though the two men are thought to be members of the PCJSS, there remains some dispute about their political officials. The leading suspects are thought to be activists of the hard-line splinter party United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF).
In 1997 the PCJSS made a deal with the ruling Awami League party to give up armed resistance. Since then, the competing, splinter party has sought to challenge the legitimacy of the moderating PCJSS. Since the recent spate of violence aimed at the Chakma, tensions have been running high. Internal and inter party tension has now, apparently, boiled over.
It seems likely that nothing of the original demand for Chakma autonomy will play out as a real political matter. This implies that the fierce infighting underway in the Chittagong Hill Tracts is simply a power grab, a play for who wields the kingly scepter. Whether that scepter signifies anything at all is, of course, an entirely different question.
