Ruthless persecution of Bangladeshi Hindus doesn’t spare the minority community even on their festival days.
Durga Puja passed off relatively peacefully this year, after the Sheikh Hasina govt. faced international pressure from Hindus for the targeted attacks and mayhem during last year’s Puja. However, on Monday, the day of Kali Puja/Diwali, a Maa Kali temple at Gobindpur village, Kotwali in Dinajpur district of Bangladesh was vandalized and desecrated by local Muslim extremists.
The devotees broke down on seeing the condition of their deity on the auspicious day of the Kali Puja festival.
Police later arrested four extremists – Tushar Islam, Belal Uddin, Rocky Ahmed and Asaduzzaman – for the hate crime. Authorities have said that the accused will be punished, but such promises have been made and broken several times in the past. Such Islamists often have the backing of influential members of the ruling Awami League, and the Bangladesh’s track record of prosecuting and convicting those responsible for hate crimes against Hindus is poor.
Bangladesh foreign minister had whitewashed the 2021 Durga Puja pogrom as ‘cooked-up stories’ to target the Sheikh Hasina govt. Young Hindus are routinely muzzled using the draconian Digital Security Act if they raise their voices too loudly against injustice.
One hopes that justice is done in this case with Hindus of Gobindpur, but the ugly reality is that this incident will be soon forgotten before yet another temple is desecrated in the Islamic Republic of Bangladesh.
It is expected in every civilized country that its ‘majority’ community should protect its ‘minority’ group. But in Bangladesh what we are seeing? Since its very birth in 1971, Bangladesh has witnessed hundred of carnage of Hindu minority there. Hate crime has become a regular feature: Hindu girls are abducted, raped and killed. Hindu properties are vandalized. Hindu temples are desecrated and idols of Hindu god/goddess are crushed. Arson, looting of Hindu properties have become order of the day. Genocide of Hindus have become a common affair.
Govt. apathy to Hindus has added fuel to the ‘fire’. The Hindus are socially ostracized. Police do not take FIR, foget taking action against the Muslim culprits. Hospitals give ill-treatment. Muslims are always preferred to Hindus in appointment to schools, colleges, offices, and industries. Hindu lands are grabbed by his Muslim neighbor as & when that victimized Hindu flees with his familiy for life which is so dear. This explains why the Hindu population that it was 22% in 1971 in Bangladesh has dwindled to less than 7% as on 2022. Many have fled the country and a lot many died in natural calamity and under the onslaught of ‘evil forces’.
Hindus will be wiped out from Bangladesh in near future. Modi government does not care.