On 2 June 2017, Bangladesh army backed Muslim settlers attacked 4 indigenous Buddhist villages in Longadu. Muslim settlers murdered an indigenous Buddhist women and burnt down more than 250 indigenous Buddhist houses.

Radcliffe sowed, the Chakmas reap.

Eever since 1947, the Chakmas have faced systematic extermination at the hands of, first, Pakistani and then Bangladeshi policy makers and troops. H.N. Pandit explains how they stumbled on their cruel fate because of a deal between Earl Mountbatten and Sir Radcliffe, who diveded India.

Recently newspapers have been full of reports from Bangladesh of the atrocities to which the Government of the Muslim population of that country have subjected the Buddhist tribals of the CHT with the set objects of removing them from this district and replacing them with Muslims. This reign of terror began in 1947 and is continuing till today. It included holding thousands of tribals captive in the underground pits, burning down their houses, raping their women and forcible occupation of this land. Police and army men, the reports say, have actively participated in these crimes. The world has thus learnt that an operation to exterminate a distinct ethnic group is in progress in their own homeland. But few will know from this how these tribals, who form the bulk of the population in the CHT district, were wronged by high and mighty who settled their fate at the time of the partition of India.

Sir Cyril Radcliffe's infamous Boundary Award gave this distinct of 5007 square miles to East Pakistan though Muslims formed only three percent of its population. The record of the 1941 census gives the total population figure of CHT as 247053 of these Tribals numbered 233,392; Muslims were only 7,270 & Hindus 4,881. In the 'notional' or provisional division which remained in force for the months of June, July and half of August in 1947, CHT had remained with India. The wicked plan to award it to Pakistan was hatched and finalized by Lord Mountbatten, Radcliffe and Lord Ismay sitting together on 9 August 1947. For proper understanding of this episode another scandal connected with the Punjab boundary was to be disclosed at the beginning. When the Mountbatten plan for the partition of India was accepted by the political parties, the British Cabinet as well as the Viceroy in India were very anxious about how the Sikhs would react to the partition. This small but powerful and militant community was so widely dispersed all over the Punjab that no partition plan of the province was possible without leaving large number of them in Pakistan. The Cabinet feared that in sheer desperation the Sikh might start violence on such wide scale as to wreck the plan itself British Govt. then on the recommendation of Horace Alexander of the India Conciliation Group, the Cabinet sent a British Army Official named Major Amclanghlin Short (nick named Major Billy Short) to establish liaison with the Sikh leaders and do something to mollify them. Short was not sent as a Mountbatten's staff. He came as Lord Ismay's unofficial liaison man. During the war he had earned great popularity among Sikhs, especially those in the Army.

Short's behind the scene moves are not known to history but sometime after his arrival very significant change took place in Radcliffe's boundary award for Punjab. In Ferozpur District, the subdivision of Jira and Ferozpur had Muslim majorities, but there were also compact Sikh population there. When the Award was finally published on 17 August, it showed that contrary to expectation, these two sub-divisions had been awarded to India, though they had remained with Pakistan under the notional division. All pretence that the division represented Radcliffe's independent judgement was demolished by an odd incident. In the first week of August 1947, the Governor of Punjab, Sir Evan Jenkins, asked Radcliffe’s office for advance information about the line of the partition in Punjab which would enable him to arrange the disposition of troops and police personnel at convenient points to deal with large-scale rioting which looked certain to occur. In response to this request Radcliffe's Secretary, Christopher Beaumount sent to Jenkins a short note with a sketch map of Punjab showing the line of partition drawn through it. In this map Ferozpur and Jira were shown on the Pakistan side of the partition line. Both the map and the note were dated 8 August 1947. Jenkins retired as Governor of Punjab on 15 August. He left the sketch map and the note, either by oversight or on purpose, to be handed over to his successor, Sir Francis Mudie, who was great favourite of the Muslim League leaders. Mudie lost no time in showing the documents to Jinnah and Liquat Ali. This ruined Mountbatten's image in Jinnah's eyes and Radcliffe was proved to be so dishonest as to change his own reward on persuasion sometime between 8 August and 13 August when he delivered the Award to the Viceroy.

The Ferozpur Scandal was linked with a matter of life and death for the Buddhist Tribals of CHT in Bengal. On the evening of 9 August Mountbatten and Radcliffe were invited to the Ismay's residence in the Viceroy's ostensibly to discuss the date of publication of the Award itself. It seems the reversal of the earlier decision on Ferozpur and Jira took place at this meeting and Jenkins in Punjab was informed about it later by telegram.

At this meeting of 9 August, Mountbatten, according to existing records, expressed the opinion that in case one wing of Pakistan had to suffer some loss of territory, this could be balanced by some extra concession made in Pakistan's favour in the other wing (H.V. Hodson: The Great Divide P-354) "This principle of balance according to Hodson could conceivably have been so interpreted as to compensate, say, some concession to Sikhs in the Punjab Canal colonies (developed by the Sikhs) by some concession to the muslims in Assam-Sylhet)".

What naturally happened is that Mountbatten hurriedly sent a request to the Governor of Bengal, Sir Federick Burrow for information- in reality for justifying reasons which could be advanced for awarding 'the Hill Tracts' to Pakistan. As was to be expected, Burrow couldn't immediately answer this demand requiring topographical knowledge of an outlying backward district of his province at such short notice. His reply reached Mountbatten at a time when Radcliffe's Award had already been completed, signed, sealed and delivered officially to the Viceroy for publication. Therefore, Redcliffe couldn't give any reason, whatsoever for awarding CHT to Pakistan. This astounding decision had to be taken, without support of an argument because Burrow‘s reply, which talked vaguely about the lack of good roads between the Hill Tracts and Assam, arrived after Radcliffe had closed the Award affair. Mr. Hodson has said (in a letter to this Writer) that Burrow's reply was not forwarded to Radcliffe when it arrived. Obviously it was no longer of any use to him after he had delivered the award to the Viceroy.

Sir Cyril Radcliffe was commissioned primarily to separate the Muslim areas from the rest of the country. But in spite of his vaunted honesty and impartiality he had to act against his conscience, which perhaps explain why at the end he declined to accept the sum of 2000 pounds which had been stipulated as his fee for the assignment.

Sources:

Amrit Bazar Patrika: 11 May 1980