DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Tens of hundreds of minority Hindus rallied Friday to call for that the meantime executive in Muslim-majority Bangladesh give protection to them from a wave of assaults and harassment and drop sedition circumstances in opposition to Hindu neighborhood leaders.About 30,000 Hindus demonstrated at a big intersection within the southeastern town of Chattogram, chanting slogans hard their rights whilst police and infantrymen guarded the realm. Different protests had been reported somewhere else within the nation. Hindu teams say there were hundreds of assaults in opposition to Hindus since early August, when the secular executive of High Minister Sheikh Hasina used to be overthrown and Hasina fled the rustic following a student-led rebellion. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel peace laureate named to steer an meantime executive after Hasina’s downfall, says the ones figures had been exaggerated.
Hindus make up about 8% of the rustic’s just about 170 million other people, whilst Muslims are about 91%.The rustic’s influential minority crew Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Cohesion Council has stated there were greater than 2,000 assaults on Hindus since Aug. 4, because the meantime executive has struggled to revive order.
United International locations human rights officers and different rights teams have expressed fear over human rights within the nation underneath Yunus. Hindus and different minority communities say the meantime executive hasn’t adequately safe them and that hard-line Islamists are turning into increasingly more influential since Hasina’s ouster.
The problem has reached past Bangladesh, with Indian High Minister Narendra Modi voicing fear over experiences of assaults.Whilst the management of United States President Joe Biden has stated it’s tracking Bangladesh’s human rights problems since Hasina’s ouster, U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump has condemned what he described as “barbaric” violence in opposition to Hindus, Christians, and different minorities in Bangladesh.
In a submit on X, he stated: “I strongly condemn the barbaric violence in opposition to Hindus, Christians, and different minorities who’re getting attacked and looted by means of mobs in Bangladesh, which stays in a complete state of chaos.”Hindu activists had been staging protest rallies within the capital, Dhaka, and somewhere else since August to press a collection of 8 calls for together with a legislation to give protection to minorities, a ministry for minorities and a tribunal to prosecute acts of oppression in opposition to minorities. Additionally they search a five-day vacation for his or her greatest pageant, the Durga Puja.Friday’s protest in Chattogram used to be rapidly arranged after sedition fees had been filed Wednesday in opposition to 19 Hindu leaders, together with distinguished priest Chandan Kumar Dhar, over an Oct. 25 rally in that town. Police arrested two of the leaders, angering Hindus. The fees stem from an match during which a bunch of rally-goers allegedly positioned a saffron flag above the Bangladesh flag on a pillar, which used to be thought to be disrespecting the nationwide flag. Hindu neighborhood leaders say the circumstances are politically motivated and demanded Thursday that they be withdrawn inside of 72 hours. Any other Hindu rally used to be deliberate for Saturday in Dhaka.
One after the other, supporters of Hasina’s Awami League birthday celebration and its allied Jatiya Birthday party have stated in addition they had been centered since Hasina’s ouster. Jatiya’s headquarters used to be vandalized and set on fireplace overdue Thursday.On Friday, Jatiya Birthday party Chair G.M. Quader stated his supporters would proceed to carry rallies to call for their rights regardless of risking their lives. He stated they might hang a rally Saturday on the birthday celebration headquarters in Dhaka to protest value hikes of commodities, and what they name false fees in opposition to their leaders and activists.Later Friday, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police introduced it used to be banning any rallies close to the Jatiya Birthday party’s headquarters. Hours after the police resolution, the birthday celebration stated it postponed their rally to turn appreciate to the legislation and a brand new date for the rally can be introduced quickly. The police resolution got here after a scholar crew strongly criticized the police management for first of all granting permission for the rally, and threatened to dam it.
