The InternationalCovenant on Civil and Political Rights: A Study on Bangladesh Compliance According to Bangladesh’s now disputed 2011 census, of the country’s more than 142 million inhabitants, just 1.2% are described as indigenous (adibashis).82 Most of these live in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), while some live in the socalled plains areas of Bangladesh and are more integrated into communities dominated by the majority. There are approximately thirteen indigenous communities in the CHT (Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachari Hill Districts); they are: Chakma, Murma, Tangchangya, Tripura, Murang, Mrung, Bawm, Pangkhua, Lushai, Khumi, Khyang, Mru, and Sak.83 However, the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh does not recognize the existence of any other communities other than the dominant Bengali majority. Immediately after attaining independence, when the warravaged Bangladesh Government was preparing to adopt a constitution, a hill peoples’ delegation led by Manobendra Narayan Larma called on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on February 15, 1972 demanding autonomy for the CHT with its own legislature. But this demand was utterly rejected; he rather insisted that there could be only ‘one nation’ in Bangladesh. Bangabandhu therefore reportedly 84 M Rahman and T H Shawon, eds., Tying the Knot: Community Law reform and Confidence Building in the CHT (Dhaka: ELCOP, 2001), 10. 85 Ibid. 86 W Van Schendal, “The Invention of ‘Jumma’: State Formation and Ethnicity in Southeastern Bangladesh,” Modern Asian Studies 26, part. 1 (1992): 95. 87 The CHT Commission, Life is not Ours’ Land and Human in the CHT Bangladesh (Denmark & the Netherlands, 1994), 8. 67