The measures adopted by the Bangladesh government to silence the voices of its minority Hindu community who have tried to share information on the atrocities meted out to the Hindus during the Durga puja this year are disturbing, to say the least.

In an elaborate video by Asad Noor, the Bangladeshi blogger reveals that the government of Bangladesh has never been effective in checking the bigoted communal voices in the country, like Enayet Ullah Abbasi who has openly indicated to his Muslim followers that grabbing the property of his weaker Hindu neighbour may not be allowed legally, but Allah will certainly not send him to hell for this. In another video shared by Asad, an Islamic Imam can be seen threatening the Hindus to take down their Durga Puja pandal. 

The allegedly secular Sheikh Hasina government took no steps to warn or penalize such elements suppressing the minority community in Bangladesh. This has only empowered the Islamist elements to hunt down Hindus, vandalize their temples and puja venues and ransack their homes. 

The news of a 10-year-old Hindu girl passing away after being gang-raped by Islamists was not only shared by eminent Twitter handles but reported by Channel I News of Bangladesh as well. However, shortly after the broadcast of this news, it was edited and the mention of the minor’s death was expunged from the video. 

The police also rubbished the incident as a ‘rumour’. While the Awami League govt. has not learned to stop the sustained year-round persecution of Hindu and other minorities, they have mastered the art of keeping facts hidden, their ministers are putting more effort in hiding facts and denying the instances of atrocities with a straight face. 

Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr. AK Abdul Momen issued a statement claiming ‘no one was raped’ during the recent communal violence, and ‘not a single Hindu temple was torched or destroyed’ in the country. However, a couple of deities or Goddesses were vandalized, he said. Only two Hindus died, as per Momen – one a ‘normal death’ and another ‘by drowning’. He added that only 20 houses were burned down which have now been rebuilt.

Momen claimed that ‘cooked-up’ stories are being spread to embarrass the Sheikh Hasina government.

The dishonesty in this statement is shameful to say the least. It only exposes what a bankrupt and corrupt administration Sheikh Hasina is running in the guise of secularism. Leave all the other lies – how can a minister so brazenly undercount Hindu deaths, and even for the 2 deaths that he does admit, make it sound like they died of ‘normal’ causes? If someone is attacked and falls into a pond and drowns, is the attacker not responsible for this death? This is like pushing someone in front of a speeding train, and then claiming the train killed them!

Does this look like the face of someone who died a ‘normal’ death, Dr. Momen (warning: disturbing image)?

Pranto Chandra Das died when the ISKCON temple in Noakhali, Bangladesh was attacked and vandalized by Muslim mobs. The fanatical mob had stormed through the College Road and plundered almost all the Hindu temples in the area; the Ram Thakur Ashram was not spared either. 

The fact is, as per Dipan Mitra, the Secretary-General of World Hindu Federation (Bangladesh Chapter), 10 Hindus were murdered in the initial frenzy of violence in Bangladesh. 4 victims are known – Manik Saha, Jatan Kumar Saha (Prabhu), Pranto Chandra Das, ISKCON Priest Nimai Krishna Dasa (he had been reported critically wounded in earlier media reports).

The other 6 victims are unidentified; whether these include the two victims which HinduPost had reported earlier – Nitai Das Prabhu and Ram Krishna Das – based on rights activists, is now known.

Dipan Mitra adds that 315 temples & pandals, and 1500 Hindu homes & establishments were were attacked and vandalized across 30 districts of Bangladesh between 13-16 October. 23 Hindu women and girls were raped and 17 Hindus remain missing. But the violence did not end on October 16 – it continued for at least a week.

On Sunday night, October 17, Muslim zealots vandalised at least 70 Hindu homes and burnt 25 of them to ashes in a matter of hours in Boro Karimpur village of Pirganj, Rangpur. Two shops and two temples were also set on fire. Valuables were stolen from every house. Eighteen cows, eight goats, two electric rickshaws, two motorcycles, and Tk 5 lakh in cash were stolen. This is all just from one attack, which got reported widely and which Momen is probably referring to when he claimed “only 20 homes were burnt”. But even in describing the damage from just this one attack, he was dishonest, and glibly glossed over the houses vandalized and looted, the shops and temples burnt.

As per a conversation Hindu American Foundation had with an activist in Bangladesh (who remained anonymous out of fear of reprisals) on how the current violence affected just temples alone, 335 Hindu temples were vandalized across 33 districts in Bangladesh and 7 priests were killed.

An elderly man, Dilip Das, who was hit on the head with a brick in front of Comilla’s Rajarajeshwari Kalibari puja mandap on October 13, passed away due to his injuries on October 21. How many more such victims, those who had been injured grievously in the initial violence and later passed away, are there? Is Dilip Das’ death also a ‘normal’ one, Dr. Momen?

There is such a clampdown on information, self-censorship by Bangladeshi media, and fear among Hindus to report atrocities, that the full scale of what occurred has been suppressed, just like the post-poll pogrom against Hindus in West Bengal was suppressed.

Suvendu Adhikari, who is also serving as the leader of opposition in West Bengal had held a meeting with the Deputy High Commission of Bangladesh in Kolkata on October 18 and expressed his concerns regarding the ongoing violence against Bangladeshi Hindus.

However, instead of curbing the violence, Bangladesh govt. allegedly arm-twisted either Twitter or IKCON to remove the verified ISKCON Bangladesh Twitter handle @iskconbdh, so that Bangladesh’s shameful reality doesn’t get out to the world at large.

If the Bangladesh government can muzzle a global entity like ISKCON, penalizing ordinary Hindus who expose the Islamic country’s misdeeds to the world would not be very tough. And this is what they have been doing over the last month, punishing those who were only sharing information about the suffering of Hindus:

If one follows Hindu activist handles like @pradipchandra7, you will realize how randomized, low-level violence against Hindus is a part of daily life in Bangladesh. And this has not changed, even if the mass violence over the fake Quran ‘desecration’ in Cumilla has subsided.

In the above video, Dipti Rani Das narrates how a murderous mob of 50 armed with sharp weapons reached her home at the dead of the night and demanded that she must hand over her husband and son to them. They also abused her in unspeakable profanities and asked for the gaslighter to set her house ablaze. She begged them to have mercy on her, but they didn’t listen to her and raided her house. 

A Hindu woman from Bangladesh, while talking to Arambagh TV, narrates how her family has been suppressed by Islamists as well as the Bangladesh government since the 60s. First, the government tried to grab 10 acres of her family-owned land, and then influential people in the area had razed down their temple. 

The situation of Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh is dire. No amount of whitewashing by the Sheikh Hasina government can hide this from the world anymore.