DHAKA, Aug 9: Several hundred men and women of different ethnic minority communities staged demonstrations in the Dhaka city on Monday to protest against "discrimination and oppression on them".

Urging all concerned to unite to realise their fundamental rights, the demonstrators also called for a greater unity among the tribesmen to protect their lands from encroachment by the non-tribal and implement of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord.

The members of various ethnic minority groups, many of them wearing traditional dresses and carrying spears and bows representing their distinctive cultures and dancing with their traditional songs, attended a rally at the Central Shaheed Minar from where they marched towards Institute of Engineers, Bangladesh.

"Our land, our life" shouted the demonstrators while marching towards the IEB. They also chanted slogans "stop ousting us (indigenous) from our ancestral lands, recognize us as the inhabitant of the land and implement the CHT Peace Accord".

Bangladesh Indigenous People's Forum, a platform of 45 ethnic groups and tribes living in the country, organised the programmes marking the International Day of the World s Indigenous People, observed worldwide on Monday.

Members of the ethnic minority groups from across Bangladesh gathered at the Shaheed Minar in the morning. They carried placards, festoons and banners containing their various demands.

Leading the rally, Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma, the chairman of the Bangladesh Indigenous People's Forum, called for a greater unity of both the indigenous and the democratic and progressive forces to stand against the alleged repression on the indigenous and realise their fundamental rights.

He accused all the governments, which ruled the country since independence, of creating anarchy across the country through the help of communalism. "Unless a non-communal government comes to power, rights of the tribal people will not be established," he said.