No let-up in attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh

Sheikh Hasina is still in India as England has not yet allowed her to enter the country due to fear of communal riots in their own country and the same is happening in her own country where minorities are being targeted.

In welcoming Mr Yunus to Dhaka’s seat of power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed that the safety of the Hindus, facing attacks in places all over Bangladesh, and of other minority communities be ensured. This statement, with the emphasis on Hindus, had to be made as huge concerns have arisen over the well-being of the members of minority communities, particularly the Hindus, because Bangladesh was in the throes of limitless violence. Awami League members have been primarily targeted with some of them meeting a horrible fate like being done to death by arson set off by the mobs. But it is the Hindus who may be facing the probability of a continued pogrom carried out by extreme radical elements like the Islamic party. The major challenge ahead for the interim government is to ensure that killings of Awami League members and the minorities do not keep occurring. While the adviser and head of the 17-member Cabinet may have immediately ascribed the killing of members of the minority communities to a conspiracy, restoring public order with the help of the Army, the police forces and student volunteers is the first task he must address as the world frets over loss of lives.

The ongoing protests over Bangladesh’s employment quota system have turned violent against innocent Hindus of Bangladesh. Radical, fundamentalist Muslims of Bangladesh have incited violence against minority innocent Hindus. And these attacks on Hindu minority community members are not less than terrorist attacks. Such kind of attrocities on Hindu minority community of Bangladesh is totally “intolerable”. The situation is getting worse every day, and the innocent Hindu population in Bangladesh is becoming the soft target of Islamic extremist forces who have not only attacked and torched Hindu shrines, temples but also targeted innocent Hindu homes. In addition, Hindu homes and other businesses have been viciously attacked by gangs who not only steal property but also harm women and children in a violent manner. The fundamentalists and radicals have vandalised; the statues of Hindu gods, goddess Subhadra Devi, Balabhadra, and Lord Jagannath were completely shattered.

With the current affairs and situation that are now in Bangladesh, it appears that the country is also becoming more like Sri Lanka, and on a basic and religious level, things there are quickly becoming like in Pakistan. Because the control of power in Pakistan remains in the hands of fundamentalists and radicals. Now something similar is being seen in Bangladesh also. The Indian government should also offer all measures of assistance and support to the innocent Hindu community in Bangladesh. Let us hope that peace may returns in the country.

Yash Pal Ralhan, Jalandhar

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The increase in Hinduphobia in our neighbouring countries is alarming. India is the only hope for Hindus in the world, and it is sad that the Indian government faces resistance at all levels to even try to help the severely persecuted Hindu brethren in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Turning a blind eye and denying the clear statistics seems to be the most common response. It is unfortunate that the dislike for a single person in the form of the PM is converting into a dislike for all the Hindus. In Afghanistan, the Hindu and Sikh population was 7 per cent of the total in the second half of the twentieth century. Now only a few hundred Hindus and Sikhs live in Afghanistan, putting their lives at risk. The proportions of Hindus in West Pakistan and East Pakistan (Bangladesh now) were around 15 per cent and 29 per cent, respectively, at the partition of India in 1947. Hindus now make up 2 per cent of Pakistan's population, and Hindus in Bangladesh have progressively decreased to below 9 per cent.

India and its embedded dharma present the only hope for multiculturalism in the world to survive. Unfortunately, a uniformly poor understanding, spanning across all political parties, of the nature of Sanatana Dharma or its closest correlate, Hinduism, is causing intense damage to the country's fabric. The ruling party aims to unite Hindus in order to win elections, while the opposition seeks to divide them into disparate groups in order to gain power. Both these types of political manoeuvres obscure Hinduism's true essence, resulting in only injustice to the Hindus and the country both.

Dr Pingali Gopal, Hanamkonda