Temples Set on Fire, Minorities Attacked: After Sheikh Hasina's Exit, Hindus Become Soft Targets in Bangladesh

Soon after the news of Sheikh Hasina resigning as Bangladesh’s Prime Minister spread (and at some places, even before that), sporadic violence was reported against the country’s minorities, mainly Hindus. With even news channels being subjected to violence in Dhaka, organisations working for minorities screamed for help on social media. With a prospect of Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s (BNP) return getting real and the prospect of Islamists of Jamat getting a strong foothold in Bangladesh’s political sphere — that Hasina has been able to keep at arm’s length, to her credit — religious places of Bangladeshi Hindus have started getting desecrated.

An ISKCON temple in Meherpur, in Bangladesh’s Khulna division, was vandalised and set on fire by protesters on Monday.

A minority that makes up about 8 per cent of Bangladesh’s population, or around 13.1 million people — Hindus have been at the receiving end of a student agitation metamorphosed into sectarian violence that has got a taste of ‘my way or highway’. This is not a report card on Sheikh Hasina’s ability to turn Bangladesh into a ‘safe-haven’ for its minorities. Even under Hasina, attacks on places of worship and forced evacuation from the land were regular for its minorities. But she was able to keep the militant Jamat from unleashing its fire. Today’s 8 per cent Hindu population of Bangladesh is a significant decrease from 1947, when Hindus made up 30 per cent of the population, a testament to their fate from now.

Probably one of the first to die was Hindu Awami League leader Haradhan Roy and his nephew, who were lynched by a mob. A grab of a telegram channel that has ever since gone viral, claims “13 Hindu homes and 3 temples were set on fire”. The phone number disseminating the information on the purported telegram group identified him as ‘Bangladesh Islami Chhatro Shibir’. In India, it caught the eye when Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of the Economic Advisory Council of the Prime Minister referred to the gory visuals (albeit in his personal capacity) saying, these are chilling for him particularly “as a Bengali Hindu and a descendant of refugees”.

In a separate tweet, Sanyal talked about “what awaits Bangladeshi Hindus”. Sanyal did not elaborate because, in real-time, Bangladesh is being testament to it. While visuals of jubilation from the former Prime Minister’s residence were being beamed on most international news channels, reports suggested Kali temples were vandalised forcing hundreds of devotees to take shelter nearby.

However, this is not a sudden phenomenon. In 2022, unidentified miscreants vandalised the idol of a deity at a Hindu temple in Bangladesh’s Jhenaidah, while in the same year, 150 perpetrators led by one Haji Shafiullah attacked the ISKCON temple at 22 Lalmohon Saha Street of Wari Thana in Dhaka. But the police launched a manhunt, and Hasina’s government reached out to minorities. Now, it’s a brazen disregard for any law and order and the absence of any punitive action that has made Bangladesh’s minorities the soft targets.

“My phone is flooded with SOS, videos, and details of Hindus being attacked, and killed in Bangladesh as we speak now. Temples are being attacked at a very large scale. Let me tell you, in Dhaka, even Muslims who supported the Awami League are at life risk now. Cars are being checked. I know a journalist who called me pleading to rescue him to New Delhi. He is a Muslim. Now, imagine the condition of Hindus in Bangladesh. Even as you and I talk, the tolls are mounting in real-time, most of which will go unreported and whose photos will be labelled ‘fake news’ from a section of even this side of the border,” said Deep Halder whose book ‘Being Hindu in Bangladesh’ created ripples in Bangladesh recently.

A purported video showed a lady trying to convince a mob that she was “on their side”. The video ended with her name and seeking police protection. Another purported video shot by Shantu Chakraborty showed the attacks on houses of the minorities by stick welding youths. He, too, has sought help, calling himself “helpless”. Meanwhile, another purported video of an attack on a temple in Noakhali showed a mob breaking into the temple gate. Another purported video showed a woman crying while videographing a man setting another house on fire. She was heard saying in Bengali, “They are deliberately setting it on fire”. Another purported video showed the woman screaming as the mob tried to break the window glass with bricks.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg where the members were briefed about the current situation in Bangladesh, in West Bengal BJP’s leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari sounded the alarm bell.

“Hindu minority is being killed in Bangladesh. The councillor of Rangpur was killed. In Sirajganj, 13 policemen were killed, out of whom nine were Hindus. Get ready, 1 crore Bangladeshi Hindus will be coming to Bengal,” said Adhikari asking the CM and Governor Anand Bose to speak to the Centre.

Is it feasible? Halder said much of it is politics. “Even if it happens, it won’t happen overnight. But the death toll of Bangladeshi Hindus is ticking in real time,” she added.

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