International Commission on Chittagong Hill Tracts Co-chair Lord Eric Avebury calls on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her official residence Jamuna in the city yesterday.Photo: PID

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the government has decided to pull out army camps from the hill districts as a peaceful situation now prevails in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region.
She made the remark when a delegation of the International Commission on Chittagong Hill Tracts called on the prime minister at her official residence Jamuna yesterday afternoon.
During the meeting, the commission delegation led by its co-chair Lord Eric Avebury apprised the premier of their recent visit to the three hill districts--Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban.
PM's Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad briefed newsmen after the meeting.
The commission hailed the government move to fully implement the CHT peace accord, saying that the progress in the process of implementing the deal is “significant.”
Hasina told them that all the people in the hill districts are living there collectively.
"The government is strongly committed to ensuring maximum socioeconomic welfare of everyone living in the hill tracts through implementing the peace accord," she said.
The PM said the government would initiate various development projects, including construction of roads and other necessary infrastructures in the CHT areas, which will create huge employment opportunities for the indigenous as well as the Bengali people there.
She observed that Bangladesh Awami League is a secular democratic party and it believes in people's dignity and rights.
"That's why the previous AL government had been successful in signing the CHT peace accord in 1997 at its own initiative and efforts."
LGRD Minister and AL General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam, former adviser Advocate Sultana Kamal and PM's Principal Secretary MA Karim were present.