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Muhammad Yunus Has Been Lying. Here’s The Record Of Persecution Of Hindus In Bangladesh During His Reign
Jaideep Mazumdar
Dec 04, 2024, 01:58 PM | Updated Dec 06, 2024, 06:19 PM IST
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The head of Bangladesh’s interim government, Muhammad Yunus, has been saying repeatedly that reports of attacks on Hindus and other religious minorities in his country are vastly exaggerated and that Hindus are safe in Bangladesh.
Yunus, and senior figures in his administration, have said that whatever attacks on Hindus took place immediately after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government were political and not communal in nature.
But the fact that Muslim mobs specifically targeted Hindu places of worship, and the ongoing hate campaign against ISKCON, gives the lie to those assertions. And not just Hindus, even Buddhist and Christians, as well as their places of worship, have been targeted by Muslim mobs.
Long History of Persecution of Hindus
Hindus have been soft targets in that country, even before 1947. The Noakhali riots of October-November 1946, in which thousands of Hindus were massacred by Muslims, many more times that number forcibly converted to Islam, an estimated 20,000 Hindu women raped and made sex slaves, and tens of thousands forced to flee to Assam and Tripura, is too well known to bear repetition.
The systematic persecution of Hindus started soon after 1947, when the Islamist Pakistani regime started taking over properties of Hindus and gave them the option of converting to Islam or living as second-class citizens in the country.
Punitive taxes were imposed on Hindus in East Pakistan, and the community was subjected to many forms of discrimination. Forcible takeover of properties owned by Hindus, abduction of Hindu girls who were then forcibly converted to Islam, rape of Hindu women, curtailment of the religious rights of Hindus, and many other atrocities were committed against Hindus.
Periodic anti-Hindu riots were common, and a huge number of Hindu temples and places of worship were desecrated. Hindus were subjected to acute discrimination in matters of employment and education as well.
Atrocities on Hindus peaked during ‘Operation Searchlight’, launched by the West Pakistani army and their Islamist collaborators (called the Razakars) in March 1971.
Lakhs of Hindus were attacked, an estimated 2 lakh Hindus were killed, nearly 1 lakh Hindu women were raped and most of them forcibly converted to Islam, hundreds of thousands of Hindu homes were looted and destroyed, and an estimated 60 lakh Hindus had to flee to India.
The liberation of East Pakistan in December 1971 by Indian forces and the subsequent formation of Bangladesh also brought no respite to Hindus, who soon became the subjects of suspicion and hatred.
Hindus started suffering the same forms of persecution and discrimination they used to in the past, and successive governments in Bangladesh not only failed to protect Hindus but even actively encouraged and sponsored atrocities against the religious minority.
The military rulers of Bangladesh, as well as the Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government, allowed the persecution of Hindus and other religious minorities in the country.
From 1971 to 2024, an estimated 10,000 Hindus were killed or grievously injured by Hinduphobic Muslims, 12,000 Hindu women raped or abducted and most of them forcibly converted to Islam, 35,000 Hindu homes and properties attacked and looted, 5,000 temples desecrated and vandalised, and lakhs of Hindus displaced.
As a result of all this persecution by Muslims, the population of Hindus in Bangladesh has fallen from 22 per cent in 1951 to less than 8 per cent at present.
According to the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), between 1964 and 2013, over 1.1 crore Hindus fled Bangladesh due to religious persecution. HAF says 2.3 lakh Hindus continue to flee the country every year.
Attacks on Hindus Since August 2024
The fall of the Sheikh Hasina government, and the anarchy that followed, was taken advantage of by Islamists to attack Hindus, Hindu properties, and Hindu places of worship.
According to the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council — an umbrella body of religious minorities in the country — there were 200 documented attacks on Hindus, in which five Hindus were killed and scores suffered grievous injuries, on three days between 5 and 20 August.
These are just the documented cases. Many more, say leaders of the Council, have gone unreported.
Transparency International Bangladesh has recorded 2,010 cases of attacks on Hindus between 5 and 20 August, in which nine Hindus were killed.
Over and above the attacks on Hindus and Hindu-owned homes, business establishments and farmlands, as well as attacks on scores of temples, about 500 Hindu police officers, teachers, and government officials were forced to resign by Muslims in various parts of the country.
Here are some of the documented cases of persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh since 5 August:
Two-hundred Hindu families were attacked by Muslim mobs at Bejpara in Jashore town on the night of 5 August. About a dozen Hindus suffered grievous injuries, and more than a hundred houses were looted and vandalised.
In Dhaka’s upscale Dhanmondi area, the house of renowned folk musician Rahul Ananda was attacked and destroyed by Muslim mobs. While Ananda and his family had a narrow escape, more than 3,000 handmade and rare musical instruments at his home were destroyed by the Islamists who consider music to be haram (proscribed) in Islam.
On 6 August, Muslim mobs attacked the house of a Hindu school teacher, Mrinal Kanti Chatterjee, in Bagerhat Sadar Upazila of Khulna division and hacked him to death. Desperate calls to the police and army from the family elicited no response.
Fifty houses belonging to Hindus in various parts of Jashore city were attacked and looted by Muslim mobs on 6 August.
In Khulna division’s Meherpur town, which is close to the India-Bangladesh border, nine Hindu homes were looted and torched by Muslim mobs. Two Hindu temples were also desecrated.
In Narkelbaria Bazar, a small commercial town in Jashore district, 25 shops and business establishments belonging to Hindus were looted by Muslim mobs, and some were then torched.
On 6 August, Narkelbaria Union Parishad Chairman Bablu Kumar Saha’s house was attacked and looted, and a shrine in the house was desecrated. A "Union Parishad" is the equivalent of a panchayat samiti in India, and in Bangladesh it comprises around nine villages.
The same day, a Muslim mob armed with machetes attacked and looted the house of a Hindu, Liton Kundu, in Narkelbaria village.
About 25 Hindu houses were vandalised and looted in five villages of Dhalgram Union Parishad in Jashore district multiple times on 6 and 7 August.
Attacks and vandalism also occurred in Natumgram, Sultannagar, Amrojhuta village, and Khatuadanga Bazar in Monirampur sub-district and some other villages of Abhaynagar sub-district in Jashore district between 6 and 8 August.
On 6 August, a BNP leader, Kabirul Islam, forcibly took control of half a dozen business establishments owned by Hindus in Dobuara sub-district of Mymensingh district.
Muslim mobs burnt down three houses and four business establishments belonging to Hindus in Hatiya sub-district of Noakhali district on 6 August.
In Chandpur district of Chittagong division, more than a dozen Hindu houses were attacked, looted, and torched. Two of these houses belonged to prominent Hindus who were principals of well-known schools in Chandpur.
BNP leader Azizul Haque led a frenzied mob of Muslim men who attacked and looted Hindu households in Dhamrai sub-district of Dhaka division.
In Shariatpur in Dhaka division, a prominent temple known as Dhakua Manasa Bari Mandir was attacked and destroyed by Muslim mobs.
On 5 August evening, Muslim mobs attacked Ananta Mukherjee, joint general secretary of the Awami League's Kuakata municipality unit in Barishal division’s Patuakhali, and burnt down his house. A temple near his residence was also destroyed.
The residence of Bipul Chandra, the mayor of Kalapara town in Patuakhali district, was attacked and looted by Muslims mobs on 5 August evening.
In Gournandi sub-district of Barishal district, Muslim mobs looted Hindu-owned business establishments and molested a Hindu school teacher. Muslim mobs also attacked more than two dozen Hindu homes in Barishal city and looted some of them.
On 5 August evening, the house of Suranjit Sarkar, the general secretary of the Durga Puja Celebration Committee of Mohanpur sub-district of Rajshahi sub-division, was looted and torched. Sarkar fled the place and took shelter in Kolkata with his wife and children.
On 5 and 6 August, houses of at least two dozen Hindus and at least 20 business establishments owned by members of the minority community were looted in Naogaon town of Rajshahi division.
More than 25 Hindu houses and a prominent temple dating back to the nineteenth century in Vidyadharpur village of Mohanpur sub-district of Rajshahi division were looted and destroyed by Muslim mobs.
A Hindu woman was raped at gunpoint at Singra sub-district in Natore district of Rajshahi division.
Muslim mobs looted and destroyed half a dozen Hindu homes, as well as two ancient temples, Jotdaiboki Shiv and Kali mandir, in Natore on 6 August. They also attacked and severely wounded five Hindus.
On August 5 and 6, Muslim mobs led by clerics went to about 30 Hindu households in Bochaganj sub-district of Dinajpur district in Rangpur division and asked them to hand over all valuables if they did not want their homes to be destroyed. The Hindus obliged and handed over their lives’ savings and all valuables. But that did not stop the Muslims from looting their homes on 7 August and torching some of the houses.
A prominent Muslim resident of Baniachong sub-district of Habiganj district in Sylhet division, Abdul Wahed, led a mob of Muslims to the ancestral house of Ramnath Biswas, a renowned geographer and traveller who circumnavigated the globe thrice between 1931 and 1940, and ransacked it and simply threw out the descendants of Biswas (he had passed away in 1955) who were its legal occupants. Wahed forcibly occupied the large house and, despite complaints to the police by the dispossessed family, continues to occupy it.
All over Bangladesh, more than 50 Hindu school teachers, 252 Hindu police sub-inspectors, and over 250 Hindu government employees were forced to resign by Muslims. There are no Hindu police sub-inspectors left in Bangladesh now.
These are just some of the recorded incidents of attacks on Hindus on 5, 6, and 7 August. In the following days, the attacks increased in intensity and numbers and peaked soon after Yunus was sworn in as the chief adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh on 8 August.
That’s because Yunus gave a free rein to Islamists. Many rabid Islamists, even those facing terror charges, were released from prison. Yunus also held meetings with heads of Hinduphobic and anti-India Islamist outfits soon after assuming office.
Some of the prominent attacks on Hindus and Hindu temples after Yunus assumed office are listed below:
Muslim mobs attacked and desecrated an ISKCON temple at Meherpur in Khulna division on 9 August. The temple was burnt down, and monks and devotees present there were injured in the attack.
Dozens of Hindu homes in Koyra sub-district of Khulna division were attacked and destroyed between 8 and 15 August. About half a dozen Hindu women were abducted and raped.
The house and business establishment of Shivapada Mondal, a prominent Hindu businessman of Khulna, was looted and destroyed on 14 August.
On the midnight of 12 August, Muslim mobs attacked and looted the house of a prosperous farmer, Dipak Kumar Saha, in Netrakona sub-district of Mymensingh and set fire to his livestock farm, where nine cows, six goats, and many hens and ducks died, and farm equipment worth 1.6 million Bangladesh Taka was destroyed.
Six temples and Durga Puja celebration committees in Dacope sub-district of Khulna received letters from Islamist groups asking for a ‘tax’ of 5 lakh Bangladesh taka in return for permission to hold Durga Puja this year. Most of the Puja committees cancelled their plans to organise Durga Puja this year.
Hinduphobic Muslims, led by rabid clerics, severely assaulted a Hindu teenager, Utsab Mandal, in Khulna on 5 September after falsely accusing him of blasphemy. What was outrageous was that the boy was assaulted mercilessly even at the local police station by the Muslim mob. Last heard, he was still fighting for his life at a hospital.
On 10 October, a gold crown adorning the deity of the Jashoreshwari Kali Mandir in Shyamnagar of Satkhira district was stolen by a Muslim, who also desecrated the temple. The crown was gifted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Despite the criminal being identified on CCTV camera footage, he was not nabbed.
In early September, Islamists of Kurigram in the country’s northern Rangpur division publicly announced that a Hindu girl belonging to a certain household would be abducted and converted to Islam. They carried out their threat on the evening of 4 September when the 16-year-old school girl was returning home from tuitions. Though one Alinur Rahman, a rabid Muslim, was named as the prime culprit, no action was taken. The girl’s whereabouts are not known.
On 25 October, a Hindu man, Sridhama Chandra, who was a member of a temple at Majhipara in Saghata sub-district of Gaibandha district in Rangpur division, was hacked to death by some local Muslims. The reason was that some Muslims had forcibly taken an electric connection for their business from the temple and Chandra had objected. Though the murderers were identified, no action has been taken against them.
Islamists attacked a bus carrying 35 Hindus headed for a rally organised by the Sanmilita Sanatan Jagaran Jote at Rangpur. All the passengers suffered grievous injuries. Three of them are still under treatment at a local hospital.
The Givindaji temple at Gauripur sub-district in Mymensingh was vandalised and desecrated on 26 September.
A 65-year-old journalist, Swapan Kumar Bhadra, was hacked to death in front of his house at Tanpara of Sadar sub-district in Mymensingh on 12 October. Police pinned the blame on a local drug addict instead of nabbing the actual culprits: a group of hardline Islamists in the area.
On 15 November, six murtis at a temple in Maheshpur Kalibari Bazar of Jamalpur sub-district in Mymensingh were destroyed by Muslims.
Murtis of Goddess Durga that were being made at a Puja mandap at Ramganj in Lakhimpur district of Chittagong division were broken by Muslim children on 21 September. The children were incited by some local Muslim clerics.
Hindu families in a village near Chittagong city were attacked and their houses looted on 25 September.
A murti of Goddess Durga was destroyed in a village in Comilla district and the donation box looted from a temple in the village on 26 September.
On 1 October, a Hindu youth, Partha Biswas, was falsely accused of blasphemy in Chittagong, and an Islamist mob bayed for his blood outside the police station where he was lodged after his arrest. Biswas was sent to jail, even though it was proved that his social media account was hacked by some Islamists who posted blasphemous messages against Islam in order to falsely implicate Biswas.
Hindu temples were attacked by Muslim mobs at Rangunia sub-district of Chittagong district and Ramgarh in Khagrachari district.
On 28 November, the Mukunda Dutta Dham temple in Patiya sub-district of Chittagong was attacked and vandalised.
On the night of 28 November, a Hindu Dalit colony in the Chittagong court area was set afire, and over two dozen houses were reduced to ashes. The Dalits are still homeless and have not been given any relief by an apathetic administration.
On 29 November, Muslim mobs attacked a number of temples in Chittagong after the Friday prayers. The prominent temples that were attacked, desecrated, and vandalised by rabid Muslims were the Shantanveshwari Matri temple, the Shani temple, and the Raksha Kali temple.
A Muslim mob led by a BNP leader, Lebu Mia, tried to destroy an old temple, the Radhagobinda Loknath Natmandir, in Kaliakair sub-district of Gazipur district on 30 August. They also tried to forcibly occupy land belonging to Hindu families adjacent to the temple. Hindus resisted, and about a dozen members of the community suffered grievous injuries.
Muslim mobs attacked the Shri Shri Gopinath Jeu Akhra Temple in the Batris area of Kishoreganj town in Dhaka division and broke seven murtis of Devi Durga on 12 September.
Murtis of Devi Durga and Her children — Ganesh, Kartik, Lakshmi, and Saraswati — that were being crafted at a Durga Puja pandal in Rajbari town of Dhaka division were broken by Muslim men on 8 October. But police blamed a Hindu man for the incident.
Four Durga Puja pandals in Dhaka’s Tantibazar came under attack by Muslim men on the night of 11 October. The attackers threw firebombs at the pandals and even stabbed a few Hindu men present there. But despite identifying the criminals using CCTV footage, police did not arrest anyone.
Muslim men and women hurled brickbats at a Devi Durga immersion procession in the Old Dhaka area on 14 October. Many Hindus were injured. The police offered protection to the criminals.
The local administration of Kalkini in Madaripur district of Dhaka division did not allow a century-old fair, the Kundubari Mela, to be organised on the occasion of Kali Puja this year. This followed objections by local hardline Muslim clerics who also imposed restrictions on Hindu festivals in the area.
A Hindu youth accused of having an affair with a Muslim girl was beaten up by a Muslim mob at Karimganj in Kishoreganj district of Dhaka division on 17 November in the presence of soldiers of the Bangladesh Army. The soldiers did nothing to prevent the assault. The youth died of his injuries the same day.
The Sri Sri Hare Krishna Namhatta Sangha Mandir in the Ranirbazar area of Bhairab in Dhaka division was attacked and vandalised by Muslim mobs on 29 November. The police refused to even register a case.
Nine murtis that were being crafted at a Hari Mandir in Bhanga in Faridpur district of Dhaka division were destroyed on 15 September by local Muslims. But the police arrested a Hindu man and said he was an Indian from Nadia district of Bengal. Investigations by local journalists revealed that he was a mentally challenged person and a citizen of Bangladesh. The real culprits were not arrested by the police.
Murtis at Deuri Bari Sarbajonin Durga Mandir in Bakerganj of Barishal district were vandalised on 4 October. Local Muslim clerics had earlier issued a fatwa against the Puja.
A group of Muslims forcibly entered the Takabari Sarbajanin Durga Puja mandap at Ujirpur in Barishal and started reciting the Quran on 10 October. Hindu devotees objected and forced the Muslims to leave, but the police later arrested a few Hindu men on charges of insulting Islam.
A group of Muslim men led by a local BNP leader entered a Durga Puja pandal at Barishal on 13 October and began reciting the Quran. They left after the Hindus present at the pandal objected but warned that they would not allow the Durga Puja to be held from next year.
At Patuakhali town in Barishal division, a large group of Muslim men, led by some local politicians and Muslim clerics, attempted to seize lands belonging to 21 Hindu families on 21 October. The police, instead of helping the Hindus, allowed the Muslims to construct boundary walls on the lands belonging to Hindus.
Nearly 4 acres of land belonging to one Khokon Mondal in Kalapara sub-district of Patuakhali district in Barishal division was forcibly taken over by Kalapara Upazila BNP secretary Hafizur Rahman Chunnu on 25 October. Chunnu has threatened to kill members of the family if they object. The police are siding with Chunnu.
Three temples in Rajshahi's Bagha were attacked and vandalised on 24 August. On the same day, two more temples in Pakuria’s Palpara and Ghoshpara, and Kaligram in Bagha municipality, were vandalised. Though a madrasa student, Bappi Hossain, was caught red-handed, the police let him off. No complaints were registered by the police.
Murtis of deities at the Bhadhra Kalimata temple in Pashchimpara Chatmohar sub-district of Pabna district were vandalised on the night of 9 September by Muslims who also stole gold jewellery, cash donations, and brass and copper items from the temple. The police refused to register a complaint and arrest the criminals who were identified by the temple priest.
Murtis of Devi Durga at Jayanagar in Chapainawabganj municipality in Rajshahi were vandalised on 5 October. Once again, the police did not take any action.
Devi Durga murtis were desecrated at two Puja mandaps — the Rishipara Barowari Puja Mandap and the Nishipara Puja Mandap — in Sujanagar Municipality of Pabna on 28 and 29 September.
Muslims armed with machetes and sticks attacked and vandalised the Charjot Protap Durga Mata Thakurani temple in the Shibtala Karmakarpara area of Chapainawabganj town on 8 November. Despite being identified from CCTV footage, the police did not arrest the criminals.
On 11 November, a Muslim mob led by some clerics attacked and vandalised a temple in the Ballavpur area of Rajshahi. The Muslim mob claimed it was retaliation for a social media post heaping insults on Prophet Mohammad by a Hindu youth. Even though subsequent investigations did not reveal any such post, police did not take action against the Muslim clerics and others involved in the attack on the temple.
A Kali Mandir at Vayadanga Bazaar in Sreebardi sub-district of Sherpur district in Sylhet division was vandalised by Muslim mobs on the night of 1 September.
A donation box at the Chaitali Sangha Puja pandal at Kulaura in Moulvibazar of Sylhet was stolen on the night of 9 October.
A Hindu school teacher was assaulted by Muslims in Dharmapasha sub-district of Sunamganj in Sylhet on 19 November. The Muslims accused him of defaming Islam. Even though no evidence was found against the teacher, the police arrested him and sent him to jail.
Not just Hindus, other religious minorities and the Ahmadiyas also came under brutal attacks after 5 August. Ahmadiya families were attacked all over the country and at least five mosques belonging to the sect were destroyed.
More than 100 houses belonging to the Chakmas, a mostly Buddhist tribe living in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, were torched by Muslim settlers in mid-October, following clashes between Chakmas and Muslims after a few Muslim men attempted to abduct a couple of Chakma girls.
Christians were targeted in Dhamorihat sub-district of Naogaon district in Rajshahi division in September and October and driven out of their homes, which were then forcibly occupied by Muslims. At least 85 Christian families were affected. A church in Dhaka was also set on fire.
All these incidents show that not only have Hindus and other religious minorities come under numerous and vicious attacks by Islamists in Bangladesh, the Yunus government has not done anything to prevent the attacks or book the culprits.
The government’s inaction, and maybe even complicity in the attacks, has only emboldened the Hinduphobic Islamists of Bangladesh to target Hindus in the country.
The consistent refusal by the police all over the country to accept complaints from Hindus points to the complicity of the Yunus government in the attacks on Hindus.
The vengeful actions taken against ISKCON and monks belonging to the order by the Yunus government, which lodged false sedition charges against them, also reveal the anti-Hindu mindset within the interim government.
That is why protestations by Yunus and his colleagues in the administration that Hindus are safe in Bangladesh and attacks on Hindus and other religious minorities in the Islamic nation are “vastly exaggerated” are nothing but lies.
(This long list of incidents was compiled by Swarajya from reports that have appeared in various newspapers of Bangladesh, like The Daily Star, Prothom Alo, The Dhaka Tribune, and Ekattor TV, as well as accounts provided by leaders of the Sanmilita Sanatan Jagaran Mancha and Bangladesh Hindu Boudhya Chritisian Oikya Parishad, as well as various Hindu community leaders of that country.)
Also Read:
Yunus Has No Interest In Defending Bangladesh’s Hindus — India’s Expectations Are Delusional
Yunus Is Presiding Over A Bloodbath Against Hindus In Bangladesh. How India Can—And Must—Stop It
Here’s The Bold New Strategy That New Delhi Needs To Craft With Regard To Bangladesh
Bangladesh: Security Forces Launch Brutal Crackdown On Hindus In Chittagong
Bangladesh May Be Moving Towards Appeasing Its Islamic Fundamentalists By Banning ISKCON
Fears Of Harsh Crackdown On ISKCON By Yunus Regime Heighten After Monks Barred From Entering India
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