{"id":911,"date":"2024-12-14T22:55:45","date_gmt":"2024-12-14T22:55:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hrcb.org\/?p=911"},"modified":"2024-12-14T22:59:53","modified_gmt":"2024-12-14T22:59:53","slug":"our-lives-dont-matter-bangladeshi-hindus-under-attack-after-hasina-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hrcb.org\/index.php\/our-lives-dont-matter-bangladeshi-hindus-under-attack-after-hasina-exit\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Our lives don\u2019t matter\u2019: Bangladeshi Hindus under attack after Hasina exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dhaka, Bangladesh \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Krishna Das had never imagined that his peaceful life in Sunamganj, a northeastern district of Bangladesh, would come crashing down on a seemingly ordinary Tuesday evening last week.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The trigger was an allegation of blasphemy. A young Hindu man, Akash Das, had allegedly posted an insulting comment about the Quran on Facebook. The comment quickly spread across social media, igniting protests and escalating tensions, particularly in the predominantly Muslim community of Dowarabazar, about 270km (168 miles) from the national capital Dhaka.<\/p>\n

Krishna was at home when the first signs of chaos reached his doorstep in Monglargaon village about 8pm. \u201cI heard shouting coming from the market,\u201d Krishna recalled. \u201cI couldn\u2019t understand what was happening, but I could feel something was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stepping outside, he saw people gathering in the streets, chanting slogans. Soon, the crowd grew into a mob, waving sticks and batons. \u201cI rushed inside, locked the doors, and tried to hide,\u201d he said. \u201cBut they broke in anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

The violence spread quickly, even though Akash Das, the 17-year-old Hindu man from his neighbourhood, had already been arrested by the police under the \u201ccyber security act\u201d before the mob descended on Monglargaon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey destroyed everything \u2013 everything I had worked for. It was as if we were nothing \u2013 our lives didn\u2019t matter,\u201d Krishna, a small-scale farmer, told Al Jazeera. \u201cThey smashed our windows, destroyed our furniture, and began looting everything of value. They took money, little jewellery and anything they could find. Even the kitchen utensils.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attackers even set fire to part of his house. Though Krishna was able to extinguish the flames, the family\u2019s tin-roofed and walled home was destroyed, their possessions gone \u2013 and their sense of security shattered. When Al Jazeera met Krishna four days after the incident, his family \u2013 a wife and two teenage sons \u2013 was not at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sent my wife and sons away to stay with relatives in the city,\u201d Krishna told us in an exhausted voice. \u201cThey were terrified.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least 20 other Hindu homes in Monglargaon were also attacked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they attacked my home, my two daughters and wife fled through the backdoor into the jungle,\u201d said Bijon Das, referring to a dense patch of trees behind his house.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have sent my daughters and wife to my relative\u2019s house in the city [Sylhet, the nearest big city],\u201d he added, saying that several Hindu men were staying back only to guard their homes.<\/p>\n

The mob violence lasted for about three to four hours before security forces intervened.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw that most of the damage was to tin-roofed houses and tin-shuttered shops,\u201d said local journalist AR Jewel, who was on the scene when the attack happened, estimating about 20 properties were affected.<\/p>\n

However, Meher Nigar Tanu, the top bureaucrat for the subdistrict in which Monglargaon falls, downplayed the scale of the violence, arguing that \u201conly a few homes and shops had been slightly damaged\u201d.<\/p>\n

She insisted that some social media reports had \u201cexaggerated\u201d the violence, and told Al Jazeera that law enforcement officials had managed to stop a mob from entering a temple belonging to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a Hindu religious movement.<\/p>\n

Local authorities, including the army and police, are working to restore a \u201csense of security\u201d for the region\u2019s Hindus, Tanu said.<\/p>\n

Still, fear lingers. In Monglargaon, the village at the heart of the violence, many houses were seen locked last week on Friday morning, and the streets were eerily quiet \u2013 with security forces stationed at street intersections.<\/p>\n

For many Hindus across Bangladesh, Monglargaon is a microcosm of the\u00a0community\u2019s deep insecurities\u00a0these days.<\/p>\n

\u2018A twofold problem\u2019<\/h2>\n

On August 5, then Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled hastily from Dhaka for India on a military aircraft after 15 years in power, following a popular uprising against her increasingly authoritarian rule. More than 1,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the crackdown by her security forces before she resigned.<\/p>\n

India is widely perceived in Bangladesh as having propped up Hasina\u2019s rule. Hasina and her secular Awami League party, in turn, are viewed as having been more sympathetic to the country\u2019s Hindu minority \u2013 which makes up 10 percent of the population \u2013 than the nation\u2019s other major political forces, such as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami. Activists from the BNP and Jamaat \u2013 which both faced severe curbs under Hasina\u2019s rule \u2013 no longer face those restrictions.<\/p>\n

Reports from the aftermath of the Hasina regime\u2019s collapse suggest large-scale looting and the ransacking of national monuments and government buildings. More than 200 people were killed, across religions, mostly Awami League activists and police officials, as Hasina\u2019s fall precipitated a thirst for retribution and revenge.<\/p>\n

According to the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC), a minority rights group, there were 2,000 incidents of \u201ccommunal violence\u201d, including nine Hindu deaths and 69 attacks on places of worship, between August 4 and August 20.<\/p>\n

However,\u00a0investigations<\/a>\u00a0by Netra News, an independent investigative outlet, which scrutinised the most severe claims, the deaths of the nine Hindu men, found that the killings were \u201cpolitically and personally motivated, not religiously driven\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, as relations between India and Bangladesh plummeted, some media reports in India\u00a0exaggerated the scale of violence<\/a>\u00a0against Hindus. \u201cIn Bangladesh, attacks on minority groups have become common\u00a0when\u00a0transition\u00a0in power\u00a0occurs,\u201d said 42-year-old Deboraj Bhattacharjee, a Hindu banker in Dhaka. \u201cBut the way some particular Indian media, aligned with BJP, are twisting the ground reality and spreading a climate of fear doesn\u2019t help us here.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was referring to India\u2019s ruling Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.<\/p>\n

As many as 49 Indian media outlets disseminated at least 13 false reports about Bangladesh between August 12 and December 5, 2024, according to an\u00a0investigation<\/a>\u00a0by Rumor Scanner, an independent Bangladeshi fact-checking organisation.<\/p>\n

Still, \u201csince the fall of Hasina, there is no way to deny the fear and insecurity that\u2019s gripping the Hindu communities \u2026 mostly in rural areas,\u201d said Bhattacharjee. Anti-Hindu religious activists, \u201cwho couldn\u2019t dominate much during the Hasina rule, now are in strength\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n

Abhro Shome Pias, a 27-year-old Hindu student who studies at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka\u2019s premier engineering college, said there had been \u201ccountless incidents of violence and persecution of Hindus\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany Hindus have been displaced, and their lands were grabbed forcibly, and it\u2019s unclear whether they\u2019ve received justice or compensation,\u201d said Pias.<\/p>\n

The attacks also shine a light on a painful truth for many Bangladeshi Hindus: They say they need to constantly prove their loyalty to their country over India.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndia is home to 90 percent of our religious sites, and that\u2019s where our connection lies,\u201d Pias explained. \u201cHowever, the majority of Bangladeshi Hindus do not support the current Indian government or its \u2018Hindutva\u2019 extremism,\u201d he said, referring to the Hindu majoritarian ideology of the BJP.<\/p>\n

That pressure to dissociate from India gets complicated when the giant neighbour is seen as peddling amplified accounts of atrocities against Hindus in Bangladesh, say community members.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindus in Bangladesh are facing a twofold problem,\u201d said Chakravarty, a 29-year-old pharmacy owner at Dowarabazar market, who spoke on condition that his full name not be revealed. \u201cOn one hand, Indian media spreads disinformation and exaggerates incidents, some of which never even happened. This fuels anti-India sentiment, which, in turn, contributes to a feeling of insecurity among us, the Hindus.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an insecurity Chakravarty lived through \u2013 and barely survived \u2013 last week.<\/p>\n

\u2018Trapped inside for 2.5 hours\u2019<\/h2>\n

As the mob rampaged through Dowarabazar market last week, Chakravarty found himself trapped inside his shop, thinking only of his three-year-old daughter. His wife had passed away during the COVID-19 pandemic, and his daughter\u2019s safety was his sole concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was inside when I heard them chanting slogans. As they attacked, I quickly put the shutter down,\u201d Chakravarty told Al Jazeera. \u201cI was trapped inside for about two and a half hours while they attacked my shop and others nearby.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attackers used machetes, threw bricks, and wreaked havoc on nearby businesses. \u201cThey couldn\u2019t enter my pharmacy, but damaged my gates,\u201d he said, adding that his uncle\u2019s pharmacy in the same market was completely ransacked. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t even a paracetamol left.\u201d<\/p>\n

From inside his pharmacy, Chakravarty\u2019s mind raced back home. \u201cI kept calling my family, wondering if our house was attacked,\u201d he said. His elderly mother, father and sister-in-law are now staying with his brother in Sylhet city, and his daughter is with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it weren\u2019t for my motherless daughter, I don\u2019t know if I would have survived. I would have had a cardiac arrest,\u201d he said, his voice cracking with emotion. \u201cIf they had gotten inside, they might have beaten me to death.\u201d However, there were no reported injuries or casualties in the attack on the market that day.<\/p>\n

\u201cLater that night, I came home and found the door broken, and everything \u2013 furniture, clothes \u2013 was destroyed. They even ransacked our drawers. In the morning, there was nothing left in the house to use,\u201d he said. Some other families whose homes had been attacked had been left without even \u201cutensils to cook their meal the next morning\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Chakravarty, who also provides basic medical treatment door-to-door in nearby villages, said when he visited patients, he \u201csaw disbelief in their eyes\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe debris, the broken bits of furniture, bricks, and broken glasses all around the premises,\u201d he recounted.<\/p>\n

Yet, Chakravarty emphasised that such violence was unprecedented in the region. \u201cPeople here work together \u2013 even celebrate together in religious festivals and gatherings. This has never happened before,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will leave a scar for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s to blame?<\/h2>\n

The interim leadership in Bangladesh, led by 84-year-old Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, has accused the Indian media of exaggerating attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

Shafiqul Alam, press secretary to Yunus, acknowledged to Al Jazeera that there had been some attacks on religious minorities following the ousting of Hasina. But, he added, \u201cmany of the events reported in the Indian media have been exaggerated and part of an industrial level dissemination of deliberate disinformation\u201d.<\/p>\n

The interim government is committed to upholding \u201cfreedom of religion, freedom of association, and freedom of assembly for all religious institutions\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Calling on the religious leaders from all faiths for a \u201cnational unity\u201d on Thursday last week, Yunus said there was a \u201cdiscrepancy between the reality and the news published by foreign media\u201d, about attacks on religious minorities.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Hindu activists have staged several large-scale protest rallies in the capital, Dhaka, and elsewhere since August to demand, among other things, laws to protect minorities, the establishment of a minority ministry, and a tribunal to prosecute acts of oppression against them. They also called for a five-day holiday for the biggest festival for Hindu Bengalis, Durga Puja.<\/p>\n

But tensions escalated further after the\u00a0arrest of Chinmoy Krishna Das<\/a>, a Hindu monk formerly associated with ISKCON, in November. Das had been rallying protests after Hasina\u2019s removal. He was detained under a colonial-era sedition law after a local politician accused him of insulting the Bangladeshi flag by raising a saffron flag (commonly associated with Hinduism) on top of it at a rally calling for an end to the violence against Hindus.<\/p>\n

His arrest and subsequent bail denial triggered a wave of protests, culminating in a deadly clash with police when a Muslim lawyer was hacked to death outside a Chattogram court, allegedly by the supporters of ISKCON.<\/p>\n

Police arrested more than 20 individuals in connection with the murder, amid protests by lawyers and students who called for a ban on ISKCON in Bangladesh. The Supreme Court has so far rejected legal petitions seeking to ban ISKCON.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Hasina issued a statement from exile in India last week, accusing Yunus of failing to protect Hindus and other minorities. \u201cHindus, Buddhists, Christians \u2013 no one has been spared. Eleven churches have been destroyed. Temples and Buddhist shrines have been broken. When the Hindus protested, the ISKCON leader was arrested,\u201d Hasina said.<\/p>\n

Were Hindus safer during Hasina\u2019s regime?<\/h2>\n

Yet, some Hindus argue that the notion that the community was safer in Bangladesh under Hasina is misplaced.<\/p>\n

Bhattacharjee recalls losing two acres (about 0.8 hectares) of family land at the hands of activists of a former Awami League MP, who was arrested last September on charges of \u201cextortion and death threats\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindus were not safe under Hasina either,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were used as political pawns. The sense of security many Hindus felt during the Awami League regime was more psychological than real.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Sreeradha Datta, a professor and Bangladesh expert at Jindal School of International Affairs on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, explained to Al Jazeera that the perception of Hindu safety under a Hasina administration is rooted in historical context.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile violence against Hindus did occur during the Awami League\u2019s 15-year rule, the party\u2019s secular stance generally gave minority groups a sense of security and safety,\u201d Datta said. \u201cIn contrast, during previous non-Awami League governments, like the BNP-Jamaat alliance, attacks on minorities notably increased. This continues to influence the current perceptions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The minority rights group, BHBCUC, had earlier reported 45 murders, mostly of Hindus, between June 2023 and July 2024 during the Hasina administration.<\/p>\n

A prominent human rights group, Ain o Salish Kendra, reported at least 3,679 attacks on the Hindu community between January 2013 and September 2021, including vandalism, arson, and targeted violence, with Awami League leaders allegedly complicit in several cases.<\/p>\n

In 2021, following mob attacks on Hindu minority households and temples in Bangladesh during and after Durga Puja, rights group Amnesty International said, \u201cSuch repeated attacks against individuals, communal violence and destruction of the homes and places of worship of minorities in Bangladesh over the years show that the state has failed in its duty to protect minorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manindra Kumar Nath, president of the BHBCUC, stressed that the minority movement in Bangladesh is distinct and independent from both India and Sheikh Hasina\u2019s Awami League.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a new phenomenon. The demand for a minority protection law and the establishment of a minority commission has been longstanding,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Nath also noted that Hindu students were actively involved in the protest movement that led to the removal of Hasina\u2019s government. \u201cThey united to protest the unfulfilled promises and demands that Hasina has ignored for far too long,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, a former minister in Hasina\u2019s cabinet now in exile in India, however, defended his party\u2019s track record.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you compare the violence against Hindus during non-[Awami League] regimes with what occurred under ours, the difference is clear,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome attacks did happen during our rule, we cannot deny that. However, what\u2019s happening after August 5 is sheer brutality and a violation of human rights,\u201d he added. \u201cThey [the interim government] are trying to remove secularism from the constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s constitution designates Islam as the state religion while also recognising \u201csecularism\u201d as one of the guiding principles. However, this may now be at risk of change.<\/p>\n

Bangladesh\u2019s attorney general, Md Asaduzzaman, suggested during an October high court hearing that he would support the removal of secularism from the constitution. \u201cSocialism and secularism do not reflect the realities of a nation where 90 percent of the population are Muslim,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Nath warned that removing secularism from the constitution would significantly threaten the rights of religious minorities. \u201cIn the past, governments have promised us protections and rights in their election manifestos, but once in power, they failed to implement them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Bhattacharjee echoed those concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf secularism is taken out of the constitution, it\u2019ll send a clear message that religious minorities no longer matter to the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Already, he said, the government was downplaying attacks on Hindus, by suggesting that only those affiliated with the Awami League had been targeted and that the attackers were \u201cmiscreants\u201d rather than mobs driven by sentiments against the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real challenge for this interim government isn\u2019t about combating disinformation from some other country,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s how they handle the rising violence at home, especially with fundamentalist groups now emboldened. The focus needs to be on ensuring Hindu minorities feel safe again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWords aren\u2019t enough any more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Original story:\u00a0https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2024\/12\/12\/our-lives-dont-matter-in-post-hasina-bangladesh-hindus-fear-future#ixzz8uQYI2a98<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dhaka, Bangladesh \u2013\u00a0Krishna Das had never imagined that his peaceful life in Sunamganj, a northeastern district of Bangladesh, would come crashing down on a seemingly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":917,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,2],"tags":[21],"class_list":["post-911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2024-attacks-on-hindus-minorities","category-alleged-blasphemy","tag-savebangladeshhindus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcb.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcb.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcb.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcb.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcb.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=911"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hrcb.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":919,"href":"https:\/\/hrcb.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911\/revisions\/919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcb.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcb.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcb.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcb.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}