BBC”Bangladeshi Hindus are a very easy goal,” says Avirup Sarkar, a construction professionalHours after Bangladeshi High Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the rustic on Monday following mass protests, a construction skilled within the capital, Dhaka, gained a panicked telephone name from his cousin.Avirup Sarkar is a Bangladeshi Hindu, dwelling in a rustic this is 90% Muslim. His widowed cousin lives in a sprawling joint circle of relatives space in a combined neighbourhood in Netrokona, a district crisscrossed by means of rivers, about 100km (62 miles) north from Dhaka.“She sounded terrified. She stated the home have been attacked and plundered by means of a mob,” Mr Sarkar, a social coverage specialist, informed me at the telephone from Dhaka.His cousin stated the mob of about 100 folks, armed with sticks, stormed the home, smashing furnishings, TV, rest room fittings and doorways. Sooner than leaving, they took all of the money and jewelry. They didn’t attack any of the 18-odd citizens, together with half-a-dozen kids belonging to seven households, that lived there.“You persons are descendants of the Awami League! This nation is in a nasty form as a result of you. You will have to depart the rustic,” the mob shouted on the citizens earlier than leaving with the loot.Mr Sarkar informed me that he used to be surprised, however now not totally stunned by means of the incident. Hindu minorities in Bangladesh, he says, are in large part considered as supporters of Sheikh Hasina’s secular Awami League celebration and are regularly attacked by means of opponents in a rustic the place Islam is the state faith.
Mr Sarkar says a mob attempted to go into his rental development on Monday night time however couldn’tAfter Ms Hasina fled the rustic, social media used to be flooded with studies of Hindu houses and temples being attacked. India’s Overseas Minister S Jaishankar informed parliament on Tuesday: “What used to be specifically being worried used to be that minorities, their companies and temples additionally got here underneath assault at more than one places. The overall extent of that is nonetheless now not transparent.”Alternatively, younger Muslim teams had been additionally protective Hindu properties and shrines to forestall additional vandalism.“Bangladeshi Hindus are a very easy goal,” Mr Sarkar informed me. “Each and every time the Awami League loses energy, they’re attacked.”This used to be now not the primary time his cousin’s space used to be attacked, Mr Sarkar says. Minorities in Bangladesh had been centered in 1992 after a Hindu mob tore down the Babri mosque within the Indian town of Ayodhya. Mr Sarkar’s sister’s house used to be ransacked by means of a mob.There were many non secular assaults on Hindus within the following many years. A Bangladeshi human rights staff, Ain o Salish Kendra, reported a minimum of 3,679 assaults at the Hindu group between January 2013 and September 2021, together with vandalism, arson and centered violence.In 2021, following mob assaults on Hindu minority families and temples in Bangladesh all over and after Durga Puja, the rustic’s greatest Hindu competition, rights staff Amnesty World stated: “Such repeated assaults towards people, communal violence and destruction of the houses and puts of worship of minorities in Bangladesh over time display that the state has failed in its accountability to offer protection to minorities.” 
Castaway On The MoonMuslims have guarded Hindu shrines after Sheikh Hasina fled BangladeshOn Monday, different contributors of Mr Sarkar’s circle of relatives additionally confronted the possibility of violence. His oldsters’ house in Kishoreganj, 120km from Dhaka, used to be spared as a result of “we’re a well known circle of relatives within the neighbourhood and knew everybody”.Mr Sarkar says his mom, who runs a neighborhood faculty, gained a telephone name from her trade spouse, announcing that individuals had been making lists of houses to assault.The spouse then stated, “Your title isn’t at the checklist. However please watch out.”Later, Mr Sarkar’s father, who had locked within the circle of relatives, noticed a small crowd congregating out of doors their iron gate.”My father heard any person coming as much as the group and telling them, ‘Don’t do the rest right here, now not right here’. The mob dispersed.”However far away, within the Nogua house of Kishoreganj, studies emerged of Hindu families being looted.“I heard 20-25 homes have been attacked there. My Hindu pal’s gold store used to be damaged into and the embellishes on show had been looted. They might now not damage or remove the vault despite the fact that,” Mr Sarkar stated.
AFPAnti-government protestors vandalised Ms Hasina’s place of dwelling in Dhaka Some 200km north of Dhaka, Mr Sarkar’s spouse’s house in a neighbourhood in Sherpur district used to be additionally at the edge. Despite the fact that her space escaped assault, a mob looted a neighbouring Hindu house. The silver lining: as information of the violence unfold, native Muslims rallied to shape protecting rings round Hindu properties and temples.”This has additionally came about all over the place Bangladesh. Muslims have additionally secure Hindu houses,” says Mr Sarkar.However this isn’t the place issues ended. As night time fell on Monday, a mob started accumulating out of doors Mr Sarkar’s 10-storey rental development in Dhaka, the place he lives along with his spouse and toddler daughter. He reckoned they’d come in search of a councillor from Awami League who lived in the similar development.”I got here out on my sixth-floor balcony and noticed the group throwing stones on the development and looking to damage in. The gates had been locked correctly, so that they could not input. Some vehicles within the car parking zone and window panes had been broken,” Mr Sarkar says.Again in Netrokona, Mr Sarkar’s cousin informed him that the circle of relatives feared extra assaults. He referred to as a pal within the military and asked {that a} army van patrol the neighbourhood often. “It is a harrowing time. There’s no regulation and order. And we’re being centered once more,” he says.Practice BBC India on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Fb
