Bangladesh: Security Forces Launch Brutal Crackdown On Hindus In Chittagong

The Bangladesh army and police have launched a brutal crackdown on Hindus in Chittagong since Tuesday (November 5) evening. 

Army soldiers carrying lethal weapons, along with soldiers from the paramilitary Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) and local policemen, have been raiding Hindu-dominated areas of Chattogram like Hazarigolli and neighbouring localities. 

The soldiers and policemen broke into houses, rounded up all males and took them away. They broke CCTV cameras and eyewitnesses told Swarajya that some Hindus have even been shot dead. 

Swarajya is in possession of many videos of such raids, including videos of uniformed army soldiers smashing CCTV cameras outside apartments. There are photos of Hindu men having sustained grievous injuries due to brutal beatings by soldiers. 

The crackdown was triggered by a large mob of Hindus protesting a Facebook post by a Muslim trader, Osman Mollah, abusing the Hindu Vaishnavite order--International Society For Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)--and calling for it to be declared a terrorist organisation. Mollah also abused ISKCON monks and Hindus in general and demanded a ban on ISKCON. 

Hindus gheraoed Mollah’s shop at a shopping centre at Hazarigolli and demanded an apology from him. Police responded to distress calls from Mollah’s neighbours and led a merciless lathicharge on the Hindus. 

This angered some of the Hindus who responded by throwing brickbats at the police. The police claim that seven cops were injured. However, local Hindus told Swarajya that just a few stones were hurled at the police and those could not have caused even mild injuries. 

“Some hot-headed young men, angry over the blatantly partisan attitude of the police who sided with the offending Muslim trader and lathicharged the Hindus, did throw some stones at the policemen. But community elders intervened immediately and stopped them. Hindu community elders also apologised to the police. No cop was injured,” Gobindo Pramanik, a Hindu jewellery shop owner, told Swarajya over phone from Chittagong. 

But the authorities got the chance they were looking for to punish Hindus of Chittagong. A false narrative was spun that Hindus attacked the cops with acid bottles. It is inconceivable that Hindus, a severely persecuted lot who are always on the backfoot in Islamist Bangladesh, can muster the courage to even talk back at policemen, leave alone attacking them. 

A ‘joint task force’ comprising Army and BGB soldiers in bullet-proof vests and carrying lethal arms, along with police in full riot gear and armed with rifles, swooped on Hazarigolli and other Hindu areas of the city soon after dusk Tuesday and launched an indiscriminate crackdown. 

More than 200 Hindu men have also been arrested. “We fear that some Hindu men may have been shot dead. We are also getting reports of radical Muslims who accompanied the army and police raping Hindu women and also abducting many of them. We are extremely scared and fear for our lives,” an activist of the Bangladesh Sanatan Jagaran Manch told Swarajya from Chittagong. 

Bangladesh army soldiers also looted Hindu homes and many Hindu-owned jewellery shops in the city, and took away valuables. 

The need to ‘punish’ Hindus of Chittagong was triggered by a massive show of force by Hindus of the city in the last week of October.  

The city’s Hindus, led by many religious leaders of the community, had held a massive rally in the city to protest persecution of religious minorities in the country and to demand safeguards and protection of their rights (read this). 

That rally, where Hindus also came out with an eight-point charter of demands, emboldened Hindus in other parts of the country to launch protests and demonstrations. 

A massive rally was held in Dhaka last weekend by angry Hindus protesting the unrelenting attacks on them by Muslims since the Sheikh Hasina government was overthrown early August.

The crackdown on Hindus of the northwestern city of Chittagong (or Chattogram) is believed to be retribution by the Mohammad Yunus administration.

The interim government in Bangladesh, which has been falsely asserting that reports of persecution of Hindus are vastly exaggerated, has been left red-faced by the rally in Chittagong in late October and the one in Dhaka last weekend. 

Protests by Hindus, who have alleged that attacks on them have been continuing unabated, give the lie to assertions by Mohammad Yunus and others in his administration that Hindus are safe in Bangladesh. 

That is why, say Hindu community leaders, the Yunus administration which includes many radical Islamists has ordered a crackdown on Hindus in Chattogram. 

“Mohammad Yunus has ordered the crackdown in order to teach Hindus a lesson. He, and his fellow Islamists, could never imagine that we Hindus would muster the courage to stand up and protest the horrific persecution we are being subjected to. Our protests have embarrassed him and dented his image in the eyes of the western world. That is why he is angry and has ordered the army and police to teach us a lesson so that we will not dare to raise our voices in future,” the Manch functionary told Swarajya. 

The interim government and Bangladesh’s Islamists, who have found patronage from Mohammad Yunus, are also incensed over the eight demands laid down by the Hindus. 

The primary demands are enactment of a minority protection law, the establishment of a ministry of minority affairs with adequate funding, the formation of tribunals to try those accused of the recent attacks on minorities, as well as appropriate compensation and rehabilitation for victims of violence against minorities. 

The other demands are the construction of places of worship for minorities in all educational institutions and prayer rooms for Hindu, Buddhist and Christian students in students’ hostels of colleges and universities, modernisation of Pali and Sanskrit Education Board, upgrading Hindu, Buddhist and Christian Welfare Trusts to foundations and a five-day official holiday for Durga Puja every year.

“Hindus of Bangladesh have always remained meek and submissive. This is the first time we have seen such an assertion by Hindus. That hasn’t gone down well with the country’s Islamists who could never imagine that Hindus will hold rallies and make bold demands,” said a prominent Hindu lawyer who was associated with the Awami League. 

What has also angered Yunus and his fundamentalist friends is that Hindu religious leaders have provided the lead to the community this time. The Bangladesh Sanatan Jagaran Manch is led by sadhus and sants of various Hindu religious orders, mutts and institutions. 

One such prominent order is the globally-respected International Society For Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). This Vaishnavite order has been targeted by Islamists, including some in the Yunus administration, who have labelled it a ‘terrorist organisation’ and demanded its proscription. 

Hindus of Bangladesh fear that a nationwide crackdown will be launched against them in order to scare them into submission. But, say community leaders, Hindus have reached the end of their tether and will not relent this time. 

“We have our backs to the wall and it is a fight to the finish. We have to stand up and fight back, or perish. We will not stand down,” a leader of the Bangladesh Hindu Bouddha Christian Oikya Parishad who played an instrumental role in organising last weekend's demonstration told Swarajya.

Also read: Why Bangladesh's sadhu-sant samaj taking lead for the country's persecuted minorities is significant