Editing History of Bangladesh (section)

====Chittagong Hill Tracts conflict====
{{Main|Chittagong Hill Tracts conflict}}

The [[Chittagong Hill Tracts]] is the south-eastern mountainous frontier of Bangladesh with [[Myanmar]] and [[Northeast India]]. The area enjoyed autonomy under British Bengal. Its autonomous status was revoked by [[Pakistan]], which built the controversial [[Kaptai Dam]] that displaced the area's indigenous people. When Bangladesh became independent, the government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman adopted a Bengali nationalist constitution, which denied recognition of the country's ethnic minorities. [[Manabendra Narayan Larma]], a member of parliament form the hill tracts, called for constitutional recognition of the indigenous people of the area.<ref>{{cite book |last=Van Schendel |first=Willem |date=2009 | title=A History of Bangladesh | publisher=Cambridge University Press | page=344| isbn=9780521861748}}</ref> He gave a notable speech at the [[Constituent Assembly of Bangladesh]] demanding the use of "[[Bangladeshis|Bangladeshi]]" as the country's nationality definition, instead of [[Bengalis|Bengali]]. During the 1970s and '80s, there were attempts by the government to settle with the Bengali people. These attempts were resisted by the hill tribes, who, with the latent support of neighbouring India, formed a guerrilla force called [[Shanti Bahini]]. As a result of the tribal resistance movement, successive governments turned the Hill Tracts into a militarised zone.<ref>{{cite book |last=Van Schendel |first=Willem |date=2009 | title=A History of Bangladesh | publisher=Cambridge University Press | page=345| isbn=9780521861748}}</ref>

Following years of unrest, the [[Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord]] was signed in 1997 between the government of Bangladesh and the tribal leaders which granted a limited level of autonomy to the elected council of the three hill districts.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rashiduzzaman |first=M. |date=1998 |title=Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord: Institutional Features and Strategic Concerns |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2645754 |journal=Asian Survey |volume=38 |issue=7 |pages=653–670 |doi=10.2307/2645754 |jstor=2645754 |issn=0004-4687 |access-date=17 February 2023 |archive-date=5 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105001300/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2645754 |url-status=live }}</ref>