SUMMARY

The PBCP-J (Purba Banglar Communist Party - Janajudhha faction; alternatively Janajuddha) was a Maoist rebel group that fought an intrastate armed conflict over government against the Government of Bangladesh (see Bangladesh: Government).

Abdur Rashid Mathela (“Tapan Mathela”) was the leader of the PBCP-J when it was formed in 2003 or 2004 as a splinter group of the PBCP; the exact date of its formation is not entirely clear. The PBCP-J can claim descent from Bangladesh’s original Communist political party: the Communist Party of East Pakistan (CPEP), who split in the 1960s into several distinct parties along pro-Soviet and pro-Chinese alignments. The PBCP-J is one of several Maoist insurgent groups that have been active in Bangladesh. Like the PBCP, the goal of the group, at least nominally, was to achieve a socialist revolution in Bangladesh. However, the group came to function more as a criminal, “mafia”, organization as it engaged in extortion, kidnapping, and contract killings. The PBCP-J also served as a mercenary force for local politicians and businessmen.

Individual cells within the PBCP-J used rural and isolated hideouts from which to launch operations into villages and towns; the group maintained its primary base of activities in southwestern Bangladesh.