Chakma in Pakistan

Islamabad, December 2009 (UJI): Former Chakma Raja Tridiv Roy virtually still unknown to the present Pakistanis generation. Raja Roy was just one of the East Pakistan Parliamentarian to reject the new country (Bangladesh) in 1971.

Raja Roy told on December 16, an anniversary of the “Fall of Dhaka”, as the event is remembered in Pakistan that he has “No regrets about that life-changing decision as his people continue to be discriminated against by Bangladesh. The main reason in his decision to support the Pakistani Nation rather than the rebels in 1971 was that “the people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) are not Bengalis”.

He left East Pakistan on November 11, before the war began.
The Pakistani forces surrender on December 16. Most of Raja Roy’s family, including his wife, remained behind in the new Bangladesh. Three children joined him later, but his eldest son, Debashis Roy, who remained behind with his mother and a sister, was anointed the new Chakma Raja. However, Raja Roy has never gone back to CHT, Bangladesh. He has studiously kept away from the Chakma issue over the last 38 years. He is now 76-year-old. He keeps a low profile, playing golf and bridge, travelling and working with Pakistan’s tiny Buddhist association.

“My overall advice is that fights for rights constitutionally, peacefully and do not go for violence and killings amongst yourself and with others. Of course, I miss my people, my home, my community,” he said.