Hindus Attacked in Bangladesh; Cong Urges Govt to Take Up Issue

Bangladeshi media report that the Hindu community had been attacked in response to a Facebook post.

File photo from Dhaka of Bangladeshi policemen standing guard in front of a special court on 10 October 2018.

(Photo: Xinhua)

After media reports began circulating over the minority Hindu community being targeted in Bangladesh, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury urged the Centre to immediately take up the issue with the Bangladeshi government.

Over the last few days, reports have emerged that there had been attacks on houses of the Hindu community in Muradnagar, Cumilla, including in BBC Bangla and bdnews24.

The violence is supposed to have started after a headmaster of a kindergarten school commented favourably on a Facebook post by a Bangladeshi man in France, which praised French President Emmanuel Macron for his reaction to the beheading of a school teacher in Paris.

Macron had condemned the murder of Samuel Paty, for showing his students the controversial caricatures of Prophet Mohammed, as an ‘Islamist attack’ and vowed to crackdown on extremists who opposed freedom of speech. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs had supported this position.

Bangladeshi authorities have confirmed that there were tensions, but that things are under control at this point, local news media reports cited by PTI suggest.

Chowdhury, who is the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, said in his statement that:

“It is reported that Hindu families in Bangladesh have been targeted by fundamentalist forces resulting in the arsoning and other violence as a reprisal of the stand taken by our government. Indian government should take up the issue with Bangladesh government as immediately as possible so as to prevent further escalation.”

(UPDATE: An earlier version of the story incorrectly referred to PTI reports, that the violence had taken place in Nasirnagar, Brahmanbaria and Madhabpur, Habigunj, and that in addition to homes, some 15 Hindu temples had been vandalised. However, PTI had conflated an old story from 2016 with the current incident to make that claim. This story has been updated to reflect the correction. The error is regretted)