Bangladesh interim leader Muhammad Yunus has called for a meeting with Hindu students and youth to address the alleged attacks on religious minorities. He said this meeting, which will take place on Monday (August 12), is focused on protecting the Hindu community.
This comes after the country’s interim government said it was working to resolve attacks on Hindus and other religious minorities reported after Sheikh Hasina’s dramatic ouster on August 5.
“The attacks on religious minorities in some places have been noted with grave concern,” the interim cabinet said in its first official statement. It said it will “immediately sit with the representative bodies and other concerned groups to find ways to resolve such heinous attacks”.
According to a report published by India Today, Hindu students have prepared an eight-point demand charter for their meeting with Yunus. Among their demands are establishment of special tribunals to expedite trials for those who have persecuted minorities, compensation of victims and immediate enactment of a minority protection law.
Other demands include allocation of 10 per cent parliamentary seats for minorities, a ministry of minority affairs, five-day holiday during Durga Puja, upgrading the Hindu Religious Welfare Trust to a foundation, and modernising the Pali Education Board.
Hindus are the largest minority faith in Bangladesh. After Hasina’s abrupt resignation and flight abroad brought an end to her 15-year rule, there were numerous reports of attacks against Hindu households, temples and businesses. The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad, a prominent organisation advocating for minority rights, issued an open letter to Yunus, detailing 205 incidents of persecution across 52 districts, as per The Dhaka Tribune.
Parishad president Nirmal Rosario presented the letter (to Yunus) at the Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) as he said, “We stay up all night guarding our homes and temples. I have never witnessed such events in my life. We demand that the administration restore communal harmony in the country.”
The open letter acknowledged Yunus as “a symbol of a new era”, marked by significant student and public movements aimed at building an equal society. But, it also expressed profound sorrow and concern over the violence against minorities, which have marred these achievements, the newspaper said.
Minority communities have been staging massive protest rallies in Dhaka and Chattagram since August 9. The demonstrators blocked traffic for over three hours at Shahbagh in the central part of the capital city on August 10. Thousands of Muslim protesters, including students, also joined them expressing solidarity for the cause of minorities.
They demanded the newly installed interim government to take urgent steps for the security of Hindu and other minority communities and called on the people, media and authorities to support them.
(With agency inputs)
Comments
0 comment