As we speak, the Hindus of Bangladesh are slowly being ethnically cleansed from the country. Their holy sites are being burned and desecrated. Their people are being murdered. Their women and girls are getting raped. And developments on the ground indicate that with the time, the situation is becoming graver, not better.
This month, Muslim assailants set the Kali Temple ablaze. According to the reports, everything in the temple was burned in the fire. This arson attack came after Muslim assailants desecrated four Kali idols. Following that incident, the police refrained from arresting anyone. Nevertheless, the local Hindu community had appealed to the authorities for help, demanding a fair investigation and the arrest of the perpetrators, a call that went unheeded. Now, it remains to be seen how the Bangladeshi authorities will respond to the Kali Temple arson attack. As a result of these developments, the World Hindu Struggle Committee reported that there is reportedly “extreme tension and panic among the Hindus of Bangladesh.”
Kali is not the only area in Bangladesh that has suffered recently from anti-Hindu violence. There were three incidents of vandalism targeting Hindus inside two temples in the South Sonakhuli village of Botlagari union in the Sayedpur of Nilphamari district. Local resident Jyotikumar Roy said, “The assailants have done this to hurt religious sentiments.” Rajkumar Poddar, president of the National Worship Celebration Council Sayedpur Branch, said, “There is a deep conspiracy behind breaking idols inside of temples. It is the police’s responsibility to find out who is behind it. I demand immediately the arrest of the assailants.”
Also this month, Arun Das (60), a Hindu member of ward no 8 of Pukra union no 9, was murdered in Baniachang. This comes after last month; an elderly Hindu woman was hacked to death and another Hindu man was murdered while his wife was gagged up in the Asian country. Around the same time period, a 16-year-old Hindu girl was abducted by a Muslim gang in Bangladesh and the authorities refused to intervene in order to rescue her.
Following these developments, Shipan Kumer Basu, the President of the World Hindu Struggle Committee, and Snata Mukherjee, his pollical secretary, met with British Ambassador Peter Cook, former IAS officer of India Ujar Singh and the special advisor to the Indian Prime Minister Deepak Vohra in order to raise awareness about the dismal plight of Hindus in Bangladesh.
In a conversation with Deepack Vohra, Basu related that since the Awami League government was formed in 2009, anti-Hindu persecution has been widespread and there is extensive evidence that the Bangladeshi government stands behind the wave of oppression sweeping the Asian country: “They stand behind every incident of Hindu persecution and every rape of Hindus in the country. The people of Bangladeshi want to get rid of this oppressive government.” The officials promised to investigate the matter.
Considering these developments, a delegation is being formed that will include men from all strata namely spiritual leaders, technicians and professionals such as doctors, engineers and the like. It will also include members of the Israeli government. Alongside investigating the plight of Bangladeshi Hindus, they will also discuss improved Hindu-Jewish cooperation in the fields of agriculture, technology, education, banks, etc. The delegation will be headed by Mendi Safadi, the head of the Safadi Center for International Diplomacy, Research, Public Relations and Human Rights.
