asked the hill people to forget their separate identity and “become Bengalis”.84 After the brutal assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on August 15, 1975, martial law was imposed all over Bangladesh; this was a crucial event in the history of Bangladesh. During the regime of the military ruler General Ziaur Rahman, the CHT Development Board headed by military personnel was formed in 1976. The Board undertook a devastating programme of settlement of hundreds of thousands of poor Bengali people in the CHT. From 1980 to 1984, as many as 400,000 Bengalis were made to settle in the CHT, and over 50,000 Chakmas were reported to have fled to the Indian state of Tripura.85 In 1947 the Bengali population in the CHT was 2.5%. It rose to 10% in 1951 and 35% in 1981.86 The Bengali population became almost 50% in 1991. In the Bandarban and Khagrachari hill districts, Bengalis are in the majority where they account for 53 % and 52% of the total population respectively.87 This effort of forced assimilation is not limited to demographic calculations only; hill people are being suppressed culturally as well. Bengali, the state language of the country, is used as the only language in the schools in the CHT. In this nation building process, a number of indigenous 88 M Guhathakurta, “Overcoming Otherness and Building Trust: the Kalpana Chakma Case,” in Living on the Edge: Essays on the Chittagong Hill Tracts, ed. S Bhaumik (Kathmandu: SAFHR, 1997). 89 Ibid, 182–184. 68