United People's Democratic Front (abbreviated as UPDF; Bengali: ইউনাইটেড পিপলস ডেমোক্রেটিক ফ্রন্ট, romanized: Lunaiteda Pipalasa Demokretika Phranta) is a regional political party based in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. Chakmas form the majority ethnic group in the party. The United People's Democratic Front claims to seek a fully autonomous Hill Tracts through peaceful and democratic means. However, many of its members are armed and have expressed violent Buddhist extremist behaviour.^{[citation needed]}

Founding[edit]

The United People's Democratic Front was founded on 26 December 1998 at a conference in Dhaka. At the end of the conference, a five-member convening committee was formed with Prasit Bikash Khisha as its convener.^{[citation needed]}

In November 2006, Prasit Bikash Khisha was elected to presidency by the party's central committee during a congress in Dhaka. In the same meeting, Rabi Shankar Chakma became the new general secretary.^{[citation needed]}

Elections[edit]

The UPDF took part in the eighth national parliamentary elections in 2001 and though failed to win in any of the two seats in CHT it contested, the party received a considerable number of votes cast, to the surprise of many analysts.^{[citation needed]}

History[edit]

In July 2021, the party's Joan Chakma led a contingent of Buddhist-Chakmas to Suandrapara, a village of the Bawm Christian convert community, where they issued threats and conducted two violent raids leading damaging a church.^[1] Towards the end of the same month, four of the party's members were arrested for extortion.^[2]

References[edit]