Formed on December 26, 1998, the United People's Democratic Front (UPDF) is a nationalist terrorist group fighting for the full autonomy of the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. The UPDF fights on behalf of several indigenous tribes collectively known as the Jumma. Considered a faction of the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity (PCJSS), the UPDF comprises three activist groups: the Hill Student Council, Hill People's Council and Hill Women Federation. <P><br />Disgruntled members of the PCJSS (another Bangladeshi militant outfit) formed the UPDF due to their former group's acceptance of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord. The accord was signed on December 2, 1997 by the Bangladesh government and the PCJSS and sought to end more than two decades of fighting between indigenous tribes, ethnic Bengali settlers, and the Bangladeshi government presence in the region. Shortly after Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan in the early 1970s, fighting erupted when the Bangladesh government supported the resettlement of Muslim Bengalis into the largely Buddhist Chittagong Hill Tracts. Indigenous tribes felt threaten by the forced imposition of the Bengalese language and culture on their daily lives and began attacking settlers. Government troops, brought into the region to quell sectarian violence, exacerbated the problem. According to the provisions of the Accord, the Chittagong Hill Tracts became a semi-autonomous region within Bangladesh. The UPDF asserts that the agreement failed to address the fundamental demands of the indigenous Jumma people (full autonomy) and feels the PCJSS betrayed their cause. <P><br />In order to demonstrate their opposition to the Accord and their desire for full autonomy, the UPDF conducts the majority of its attacks against the PCJSS and other supporters of the Accord. The UPDF and PCJSS have engaged in retributive kidnappings, extortions, and murders since 1997. In addition, the UPDF is suspected of having conducted the kidnapping of three international workers in an attempt to halt the development seen as necessary to the Bangladesh government's quest for regional legitimacy. Two Danish and British engineers working in the area were held for over a month before being freed in a Bangladeshi army raid in 2001. <br /><br />