B’desh minority group accuses interim govt of failing to protect them

Dhaka, Jan 30: Bangladesh’s largest minority rights group accused the country’s interim government on Thursday of failing to protect religious and ethnic minorities from attacks and harassment, a claim the government has denied.
The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council said the government headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus is also using state institutions to suppress minority groups. Yunus took over after a student-led uprising last year in which hundreds of people died forced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to India on August 5, ending her 15-year rule.
The council earlier said 2,010 incidents of communal violence took place across the Muslim-majority country between August 4 and 20. The Yunus-led government disputed the claim, saying that most of the incidents were caused by “political reasons” and not by communal issues.
Traditionally, Hindus and other members of minority groups have been seen as supporters of Hasina’s Bangladesh Awami League party.
In a news conference on Thursday, the council reiterated its claim of earlier attacks and said 174 new incidents of communal violence had taken place between August 21 and December 31 last year in which 23 members of minority groups were killed and nine women were raped. It said other incidents involved arson, vandalism, looting and forcible takeover of property and businesses. It said at least 15 members of minority groups were either arrested or tortured for allegedly undermining Islam.
Manindra Kumar Nath, the group’s acting general secretary, accused the government of manipulating state institutions to harass people from minority groups.
“We have observed that the interim government has begun using various important state institutions to carry out discriminatory actions against minorities. This is unexpected and undesirable from a government that was established based on the anti-discrimination student movement,” he said.
The council said minority groups were being targeted in a systematic way, and called for the release of a jailed Hindu leader. (PTI)