The Day is observed every year to protest the illegal award of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), the erstwhile Chakma Kingdom, to Pakistan (now Bangladesh) during partition of the country which has become the root cause of suffering of the community.

On yesterday, the indigenous populations of CHT have been swarmed by plain Bengali Muslims, encouraged and sponsored by the Bangladesh government. The indigenous population now constitutes about 50% of the total population and is on the verge of becoming minority in their own land. In the last seven decades, since partition of the country, the people of CHT has suffered torture, killing, deprivation, humiliation, persecution, militarization, forcible occupation of land and human right violation.

Since then thousands have been displaced internally and outside the country as refugees most of whom fled to India. This has caused collateral damage to the Chakma brethren in India who have been living since time immemorial the contiguous areas of CHT in India like in Mizoram and Tripura. Chakma people living in these states are looked upon with suspicion and treated as second class citizen and as a result have remained deprived.

Their poor socio-economic status speaks of the level of deprivation they continue to live through. Restriction due to the prevalent covid-19 pandemic across the country the Black Day could not be observed with mass participation as witnessed every year.

Virtual discussion through video conference was organised by CNCI Tripura State Committee and speakers from Mizoram, Tripura, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and from abroad like Canada and Australia participated in the discussion. The theme of the discussion was “Chakmas – the unknown worst victim of partition”.

In Kamalanagar black badges were distributed among its residents to mark the Day. The organization has used postering in and around Kamalanagar town area to condemn the Radcliffe award of Bengal Boundary Commission which had awarded non-muslim majority CHT to Pakistan during partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 against the terms of reference of the Commission and Indian Independence Act 1947.

The Indian leaderships were blamed for the meek effort they have made for inclusion of CHT within the dominion of India despite legitimate and strong grounds to be part of India. Some posters read, “CHT was beyond the purview of the Bengal Boundary Commission, CHT being an Excluded area under CHT Regulation 1 of 1900 and therefore, it could not have been treated as part of Bengal”. CHT had no representatives in the Bengal legislature which implies it was not part of Bengal and therefore, cannot be part of the scheme of Bengal Boundary Commission. Some posters depicted that the award of CHT by Bengal Boundary Commission to Pakistan was illegal and therefore very challengeable in the International Court of Law. The then Indian leaders failing the Chakmas to include them within the dominion of India afford them a right to demand for proactive action from the current crop of Indian leaders to resolve the Chakma issues in Bangladesh as well as in India. The Indian leaders are morally obligated to act for the cause of the Chakmas to redeem the pain they have caused the Chakmas for their failure to include CHT within India.