Bangladesh a country which lies to the east of India and also shares the longest land border with India. Bangladesh became an independent nation in 1971 that’s what we know but what we don’t know is the persecution of Bangladeshi Hindus which is continuously going on from 15th Century. We found the description of Kalapahad an Iconoclast Muslim general of Mughal governor Sultan Sulaiman Karrani of Bengal who was instrumental in conquering parts of Odisha and sacking major towns and religious places and mass murdering Hindus living around that area for religious zeal.
Conditions for Hindus remained same. Partition of Bengal was again traumatising for Hindus living in Bengal as they were forced to leave their ancestral homes and were forced to mover to new areas allotted by the British Government. In 1971 when Bangladesh became an independent country with the help of Indian Armed forces. During that time Thousands of Hindus were killed by activists of Jamaat e-Islam in the name of Religious Zeal and its Student wing Islami Shibir and as usual of their tradition more than 50 temples were razed down.
By the end of the first month in March 1971, 1.5 million Bengalis were displaced. By November 1971, 10 million Bengalis, the majority of whom were Hindu, had fled to India. Although precise figures are difficult to obtain, approximately 3 million people were killed and at least 200,000 women were raped.
Bangladeshi journalist and policy analyst Anushay Hossain asserts, “many experts put that number closer to 400,000 women and girls who were raped, mass-raped, [and] imprisoned for months in notorious rape camps.”. Bangladesh after independence had declared itself as Islamic state where political parties openly call for establishment of Shariat Law. Hindus constituted nearly 31 per cent of the population of the province of East Bengal (now Bangladesh) in 1941 but if you see today’s scenario, you’ll find one Hindu in 10 Bangladeshi and the percent of Hindus have come down to around 6% in Bangladesh this show’s the incompetency of Bangladeshi government in protecting the minorities.
Hindus were targeted in the 2014 post-election violence that year, said the ASK report. As many as 761 houses belonging to Hindus, 193 Hindu-owned business establishments and 247 mandirs were attacked in 2014. Even amidst the pandemic last year, 67 mandirs were attacked and desecrated.
Seven Hindus were killed in attacks by Islamists in 2016. On Friday (March 18) 2021 a strong Islamist mob of 150 people, led by Mohammed Israf Sufi (31), and Haji Shafiullah (62), lay siege on the Sri Radhakanta Jiu Mandir in Wari in Dhaka the mob stole ₹5 lacs worth of valuable items from the temple.
Not only Hindus, Ahmadiyya’s, Buddhists and Christians were also attacked and persecuted over the last nine years. Reports have shown that if current trend of killing of Hindus keep going there will be no Hindus in Bangladesh in next 30 years. This line makes me remember a proverb “Those who don’t remember the past are supposed to repeat it” and Hindus are facing the consequences of this in Bangladesh. International organisation Amnesty International, UNHRC, UN who boast themselves as saviour of Minorities have been silent on the genocide of Hindus living in Bangladesh.
The double standard of these organisation is that whenever there is any attack on any Muslim, Christian these organisations will come and make hue and cry in name of minority rights oppression and whenever same thing happens to any Hindu all around the world, they will bury their head in the sand like an ostrich.
VPA or Vested Property Act that allows the government to confiscate property from individuals it deems as an enemy of the state and if you see the data mostly the land/property confiscated is of Hindus. Whenever there is advent of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-Jamaat-e-Islami combine to power have always triggered a wave of large-scale attacks on Hindus. Demolition of the Babri masjid at Ayodhya in 1992 triggered a round of Hindu genocide in Bangladesh.
This time, hundreds of mandirs were desecrated, looted and destroyed. The physical attacks, killings and rapes were, of course, part of this pogrom as well. Same has was done against Hindus when they were asked to leave Kashmir by Islamist Radicals. Even after repeated number of remainders the Bangladesh government has failed to protect the minorities living in Bangladesh and whenever there is any voice raised against the Bangladesh government it supresses it by throwing the Human Right Activist’s in solitary confinement.
At last, I can say that the only element that is killing Hindu life in Indian subcontinent is lack of strong leadership that could motivate almost one billion Hindus on the subcontinent to prevent the destruction of their culture and civilization under the hand of Abrahamic Religions
