Title:
Hindus
in Bangladesh abused, groups claim
Author:
Ken McLaughlin
Publication: The
Rediff On The Net
Date: Dec 14, 2001
URL: http://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/local/docs/bangladsh16a.htm
CRACKDOWN FOLLOWED OCTOBER ELECTION,
ACTIVISTS SAY IN SUNNYVALE
While the world's eyes are focused on Afghanistan, Hindus are being brutally repressed in Bangladesh, the most democratic Muslim-dominated country in the region, Hindu groups in Silicon Valley said Saturday.
Since the electoral victory of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia on Oct. 1, thousands of Hindus have fled Bangladesh to avoid being killed or raped, said representatives of Hindu groups and the human rights group Amnesty International at a Hindu Solidarity Day attended by about 150 people at a Sunnyvale temple.
``Without notice during the past two months, Hindus have been the victims of ethnic cleansing,'' said Venkatesh Murthy of San Ramon, West Coast secretary for Hindu Swayam Sevak Sangh, a cultural group.
The Bangladeshi government has strongly denied that Hindus were attacked following the October election. But in late November, the country's highest court ordered the government to explain its failure to take steps to protect the Hindu minority.
About 10 percent of Bangladesh's 135 million residents are Hindus. Virtually all the rest are Muslim.
The court issued the order after a legal rights group claimed that both before and after last month's national elections, ``the minorities came under various threats, attacks and persecution and were subjected to looting of their properties.'' The group, Ain-O-Salish Kendra, also claimed that women and young girls have been raped by fundamentalist Muslim thugs.
If the repression is allowed to continue, ``in 20 years there will be no more Hindus left in Bangladesh,'' said Dhiman Chowdhury, president of the Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities, a worldwide organization based in Santa Clara.
Even before the election, the Hindu community was targeted by supporters of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party for their perceived support for the rival Awami League, Amnesty International says.
Bangladeshi newspapers have reported that thugs have entered Hindu homes, beaten family members and looted their property.
On Nov. 5, according to Amnesty International, a gang of about 25 youths reportedly attacked Hindu homes in the village of Daspara. A 28-year-old man was hacked to death, and 16 others were injured. Police arrested a dozen people.
More than 100 women are believed to have been raped, often in front of their husbands or fathers, Govind Acharya of Oakland, the Bangladesh specialist for Amnesty International USA, told the group gathered at the Hindu Mandir temple.
Authorities claimed that Kabir's videos contained ``objectionable and misleading statements that are detrimental to communal harmony and subversive of the state'' and that he was involved in ``tarnishing the image of Bangladesh and of the government in the outside world.''
Contact Ken McLaughlin at kmclaughlin@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5552.