Ms. Rokeya Kabir, Executive Director of Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha (BNPS), is delivering her speech

Political leaders, academicians, civil society members and students paid their tributes to Manabendra Narayan Larma, a revolutionary leader of the country's Jumma people and the founder of Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity (PCJSS), on the occasion of his 29th death anniversary yesterday.

Larma was the first person to have initiated a unified indigenous peoples' movement in the Chittagong Hill Tracts to demand their rights.

Throughout his life, Larma fought to establish a secular and inclusive Bangladesh, said a statement of Jatiya Committee, which organised the memorial programme at Dhaka University.

Rashed Khan Menon, MP; Rana Dasgupta, general secretary of Hindu Buddha Christian Oikya Parisad; Rokeya Kabir, executive director of Nari Pragati Shanga; and Sanjeev Drong, general secretary of Bangladesh Adivasi Forum, also spoke.