Why this silence on organised anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh?
Reports began trickling out of Bangladesh this spring about an anti-Hindu violence in the heart of its capital carried out in three stages: March 30, April 17, and April 29. A community of approximately 400 Hindus was reportedly going about its business when “hundreds of Muslims” suddenly descended on them and demanded they quit the homes where they and their families had lived for the past 150 years. Witnesses also report that police watched passively while attackers beat residents and destroyed a Hindu temple.
And although every Hindu, as well as the international community, should have reacted with horror and outrage, neither did.
The Bangladeshi Government denied that any such thing happened, and local police captain Tofazzal Hossain declared, “No demolition of temple occurred. There was no temple there, only a few idols.” Yet, sources for the charge — Global Human Rights Defence at The Hague and the Bangladesh Hindu, Buddhist, Christian Unity Council, as well as several local human rights groups and newspapers — are highly credible, prompting our two-month investigation that confirms something terrible did occur, even if not exactly as described by initial reports.
For while not all 400 Hindus were made homeless, a significant number were, which is tragic enough, especially since many remain so months later. Nor has the Bangladeshi Government even bothered to deny that Hindus were beaten, some religious desecration occurred, or that police were present during the attacks. We also confirmed that the area attacked was located directly behind the Sutrapur Police Station in Dhaka and the Shiv Mandir only about 18 m from it; yet, the police did nothing to stop its destruction.
This is not about one terrible event, but about a system of legalised ethnic cleansing that has proceeded non-stop for decades and which places every one of Bangladesh’s 13,000,000-15,000,000 Hindus at risk. For despite Government protestations to the contrary, normal legal protections are suspended for Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh who are often subject to arbitrary actions by the Muslim majority.
Two Hindus, Jogesh Chandra and Taraknath Das, originally owned the land in Sutrapur. They migrated to India in 1947 but before doing so, gifted it to the remaining Hindus; most of them their former servants. A local Muslim, Mahbubur Rahman, tried for years to seize it but could not produce the necessary legal fiction. But after Rahman’s death, his brother and nephews determined to do what he could not because they were politically well-connected.
They used their position to prevail upon police to demand written proof of ownership from the Hindus, which all parties knew they could not provide given their impoverished state and the nature of partition-era transactions. Nevertheless, that was all the Government needed to secretly void the Hindus’ title using Bangladesh’s Vested Property Act. This empowers the Government to declare any ‘non-Muslim’ land vested once its ownership is questioned, no mater how flimsy the pretext, and award it to any Muslim who then can seize it, as was done in Sutrapur.
Next, the police refused to pursue any prosecution in the matter, even though at least three separate crimes were committed: Land seizure, beatings, and religious destruction. The GHRD and other groups have lodged formal protests and brought the matter to Dhaka’s Metropolitan Police Commissioner, but he also “refused to take any action against the perpetrators of crime,” according to GHRD’s Jenny Lundstrom.
Nor did the cover-up stop there. Mr Zakir Hossain, chief executive of local human rights group, Nagorik Uddyog, told me that his organisation appealed to the Bangladeshi Parliament and Awami League MP Shuranjit Sengupta, but neither he nor his party has taken any action. All of the Bangladeshi officials I contacted refused to comment on the incident.
It would appear that these enforcers of the law have become enforcers of lawlessness, abetting crimes against minorities and sending a message that Bangladesh is a country where the law gives Muslims preferential treatment even if it means ignoring elementary standards of justice.
This explains how Muslims have been able to seize 75 per cent of all Hindu-owned land in Bangladesh. It also means that the reduction of Hindus from almost 30 per cent of the population to nine per cent has been no accident but a deliberate process of ethnic cleansing, which if unchecked, will rid Bangladesh of its remaining Hindu population in our lifetime. And nobody seems to care; the world’s self-appointed human rights arbiters remain shamefully silent.
Meanwhile, dozens of Hindu victims from Sutrapur, including mothers and their children, remain homeless. The lucky ones are flopping in different slums each night, but for others, as one victim put it, “We are now passing a miserable life with no home and very little to eat.”
Perhaps Americans and Europeans will think of her the next time they purchase a garment labelled, “Made in Bangladesh.”
-- The writer campaigns for minority rights in Bangladesh.
Dr. Richard L. Benkin
http://www.InterfaithStrength.com
http://www.interfaithstrength.blogspot.com/
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written by P. Desikan, 2009-07-29 18:00:09
Regards. Partha.
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written by P. Desikan, 2009-07-29 17:55:07
But solutions are often found not from shows of muscle from outside the region where the injustice occurs, but by organization of suffering minorities who are able to deemphasize differences among their own economic and other interest groups and work together. Thus I believe it is the duty of Indian origin Australians to extend a warm helping hand to sections of the Indian origin students who could be in harm's way. Similarly I believe it is the duty of the rich and influential(even by accident or oversight)Hindus living in Bangladesh to rally round the less fortunate Hindus who are seen to be targetted by wrong elements sometimes with official collusion and lose their all. If your people are a minority in any society, there are two important demands on you as a group. One, you must be well developed, appear to have unity and solidarity and be aware of possible unjust activities against any section of your group. Two you must uphold the constitution and laws of the nation you are in and not engage in anything underhand.
Of course none of this may apply to a country like India, where it is a privilege to be a minority, in more counts than one.
Regards. Partha.
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From: Rabindra Ghosh
Subject: Hindu deities demolished at Mymensingh:
Date: Monday, 3 August, 2009, 8:23 AM
Hi all,
Hindu Goddess - Kali Murthi demolished and desecrated. At Mymensingh-Bangladesh:
From our correspondent: Valuka (Mymensingh)
An allegation received from Puja Ujjapan Committee of Valuka Upazila of Mymensingh district that Kali Murthi ( Hindu deities) belongs to Aswani Barman of village -Paragao Pachpai was attacked, demolished and desecrated by some perpetrators at night on Thursday last. Local police and leaders of Puja Ujjapann Committee visited the spot.
The local Kuch-Hindu community demanded exemplary punishment of perpetrators responsible for the attack.
The news was published in the daily "Samakal" dated 2nd of August, 09
Through :
Adv.Rabindra Ghosh
President- Bangladesh Minority Watch (BDMW)
12, K.M. Das Lane, Tikatully -Bholagiri Trust, Sutrapur PS, Dhaka-Bangladesh.