After Sunday’s violent attacks in the Brahmanbaria district of Bangladesh where around a 3,000-strong mob attacked over a dozen Hindu temples and hundreds of minority households, the Dhaka Tribune reported on Tuesday that the Hindu community in the area is now considering moving to India to save their lives.
The Bangladesh daily also said the community is now being forced to resort to the India option, something they didn’t have to even in the face of the 1971 liberation war in Bangladesh with Pakistani Army on the rampage.
Speaking to News18 in New Delhi, Farid Hossain, Minister Press at Bangladesh High Commission, dismissed the report and said that these were ‘regular incidents’ and in no way would compel Bangladeshi citizens to leave their home country.
“This is a stray incident and it has happened in the past as well. The attackers in such cases have often been arrested by the ruling government and a delegation has been sent there to create peace in the disturbed area,” he said Hossain.
The Press Minister said Brahmanbaria was an area of ‘religious bigots’, and stressed that it was a violence prone zone.
The Brahmanbaria incident which was triggered by a social media post has again brought the atrocities committed towards the minorities in Bangladesh after of a series of murders of atheist bloggers.
“Such incidences have happened in the past in this area, and this place is also a haven for the cadres of Islamic fundamentalists. This area also houses a lot of madarasas where students clash with people opposing their views. However this violence was controlled by timely action of the government,” Hosain said
Nazrul Islam, Editor of Newsnext Bangladesh, an online web daily, told News18 that not only the district was violence prone but there is a sense of insecurity among the minority residents of the area. “The attackers were mere fanatics. But such incidents have been growing in the past; take the recent attack on Hindus and Buddhists in Chittagong and Sylhet,” he said.
The rally which led to the bloody attack on the Hindus was called by local leaders of the radical Islamist groups Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat and Hefazat-e-Islam.
Criticizing the time lapse of the authorities in preventing the situation, Nazrul said the government in such a situation often blamed the right wing political parties, and this blame-game often led to the escape of the real culprits.
Deb Mukharji, former Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, said claims of Hindus migrating to India is nothing but a rumour which is fuelled by the radical Islamic organizations to further bolster their agenda to drive away Hindus from Bangladesh.
“This is not the first attack to have happened on a temple or minority homes. There have been graver incidents in the past, and this in no way can compel them to leave Bangladesh. During the allocation of enclaves recently, majority of Hindus in Bangladesh chose to stay back there instead of coming to India, so why would they do so now?” Mukharji told News18.
However, Minister Press Hossain seemed to agree that Hindus of Bangladesh were looking out to India. “When some atrocities are unleashed over Hindus…I agree that they do come to India leaving their native land. There are families who are educating their children in India, and this incident might have sparked this ‘migration rumour’ because not only temples were not attacked but even the houses of locals were not spared.”
This attack also comes close on the heels of the government of India mulling over a new Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which seeks to provide citizenship to minority communities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh who fall victim to religious persecution.
Mukharji said that NDA governments move to confer ‘citizenship based on religion is a thoroughly bad idea.’ He says, “How should we react if Pakistan decides to grant citizenship to Muslims from other countries that are facing persecution? We cannot ignore the plight of Ahmadiyyas, Shias, or the Bengali Rohingyas. Such a badly thought out move will have major political repercussions.”
Hossain chose not to comment on it. He says, “It is an internal move by the government of India which merits no comment.”
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