In Bangladesh, thousands of members of the Hindu minority rallied in cities, including some 30,000 in Chattogram, on Friday to demand security amid an increase in attacks and persecution after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s secular government was overthrown. The Hindu minority, which is demanding more security and the dropping of recent treason charges against its leaders, is voicing its rising worries through protests in Dhaka and other towns.
Thousands of Hindu minorities assembled to seek refuge from the ongoing persecution and attacks by Bangladesh’s largely Muslim interim government. Additionally, they requested the government to drop the treason accusations against the Hindu community’s leaders.
Since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s secular administration was overthrown in early August 2024 after student-led protests forced her to flee the nation, Hindu groups say thousands of attacks on Hindus have taken place. These figures, according to Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who was named head of the interim government following Hasina’s ouster, are inflated. Approximately 91 percent of Bangladesh’s nearly 170 million people are Muslims, whereas only about 8 percent are Hindus.
Since August 4, there have been more than 2,000 attacks on Hindus, according to the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, a powerful minority organisation. Minority groups, including Hindus, have complained that the interim administration has not given them enough security, pointing out that extremist Islamic groups have become more powerful since Hasina was ousted.
Following the filing of treason charges against 19 Hindu leaders, including well-known priest Chandan Kumar Dhar, on Wednesday in connection with the event that was held on October 25, the protest in Chattogram on Friday was hurriedly planned. The Hindu community was incensed when police detained two leaders.
A group of rally attendees allegedly positioned a saffron flag on a pole above the national flag, which is regarded as a disrespect to the flag, which led to the allegations.
In a separate development, followers of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party and its affiliated ethnic group have said they have also been singled out after her removal. The ethnic party’s headquarters was burned down and vandalised late Thursday night.
G. M. Quader, the head of the ethnic party, said on Friday that his supporters will continue to conduct protests to demand their rights even when doing so puts their lives in danger. In protest of the growing costs of products and what they say are unfounded charges against their leaders and activists, he said that they will stage a march in Dhaka on Saturday.
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