Chittagong Hill Tracts: Is it an emerging security challenge for Northeast India?
The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region of southern Bangladesh, which borders India's Tripura, Mizoram and Assam, today raises an important question in the context of the security of northeast India. Is the region gradually becoming a platform for various armed groups linked to Bangladesh, Myanmar's Arakan state and north-east India?
At the same time, the question arises whether the Government of India will continue to ignore the problems of the original hill communities living in the CHT as an internal matter of Bangladesh only. The full implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts peace accord, signed during the tenure of then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 1997, is still incomplete, leading to discontent among many tribal communities, including the Chakmas.
A conference held in Guwahati recently brought the issue back to the centre stage of the discussion. The 3rd Annual Meeting of the All India Chakma Students' Union (AICSU) was held on 6–7 March 2026 at the North East Zone Cultural Centre (NEZCC) in Shilpgram. In the conference, educationists, lawyers, journalists and student leaders discussed the current situation of the CHT and the questions related to the human rights of the hill communities there.
The speakers expressed concern that even after nearly three decades of the signing of the peace agreement, lasting peace has not been established in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The agreement may have formally ended the two-decade-long armed conflict, but many of the promises of justice, genuine autonomy and land rights remain unfulfilled.
Even today, the region continues to have problems such as a heavy military presence, land disputes, weak civil society institutions, and human rights violations. Since the region is a sensitive geopolitical zone bordering India and Myanmar, instability here could have implications for broader regional security.
AICSU President Drishya Muni Chakma says that India's national security policy prioritizes stable and peaceful neighbourhoods, to prevent threats such as human trafficking, illegal immigration, militant networks, and external strategic interference. If administrative vacuum or violence persists in the CHT, it can be exploited by non-state elements or regional geopolitical competitors.
Historically, this area has also been sensitive. About 95 percent of the population in the Chittagong area was non-Muslim at the time of the partition of India, but it was incorporated into East Pakistan. Subsequently, in the 1960s, thousands of hill families were displaced due to the Kaptai Dam project. According to various estimates, about one lakh people were affected by the project, many of whom crossed the Tripura border and migrated to India.
After Bangladesh became independent in 1971, tribal leaders raised the demand for autonomy, but it was not accepted. Subsequently, a large number of landless Bengali Muslim populations were resettled in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and increased deployment of the army for their protection. This led to discontent among the local hill communities, and gradually the movement escalated into armed struggle.
The conflict, which lasted from 1977 to 1997, killed more than 30,000 people and displaced a large number of people. The conflict between the 'Shanti Bahini', the armed wing of the Parbatya Chittagong Jan Sanghati Samiti (PCJSS), and the Bangladeshi security forces continued for a long time. Finally, on 2 December 1997, a peace agreement was reached between Sheikh Hasina's government and the PCJSS, which paved the way for the end of the armed movement.
Although the agreement provided for certain cultural rights and limited autonomy to the hill communities, the local communities are still demanding its full implementation. Buddhist, Hindu and other ethnic communities want land rights, security and greater administrative autonomy in their territories.
One of the sessions of the Guwahati Conference also discussed that if instability increases in the CHT region, people there may be forced to take refuge in Northeast India due to cross-border ethnic relations. At the same time, it was also feared that if there is a resurgence of militant activities in the region — including the role of Rohingya-linked terrorist organizations or some anti-India elements — it may affect the security situation in Northeast India.
This session of the conference was moderated by Shyamal Vikas Chakma, former president of AICSU. Dr. Anurag Chakma, Dr. Ankita Dutta, Naresh Chakma, Advocate Kuldeep Baishya and many other speakers expressed their views. Questions were also raised on the functioning of the Zilla Parishads set up in Rangamati, Khagrachari and Bandarban districts, where regular elections have not been held for a long time.
The speakers were of the view that full and transparent implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Agreement was essential for lasting peace in the region. At the same time, local communities also need to pursue the fight for their rights in democratic and mature ways.
