[3] Post-independence, Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party emerged as one of the main opponents of the new Awami League administration.

The party was active in the Dhaka, Barisal, Faridpur, Mymensingh, Tangail, Chittagong, Sylhet and Comilla districts.

It carried out assassinations of Awami League cadres and attacks on police stations and establishments throughout the country.

[citation needed] On 29 May 1981, Zia went on tour to Chittagong to help resolve an intra-party political dispute in the regional BNP.

In the early hours of the morning of 30 May, he was assassinated by a group of army officers led by GOC of 24th Infantry Division Major General Abul Manzoor.

The conflict continued for twenty years until the government and the PCJSS signed the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord in 1997.