Hindus In Bangladesh Face Attacks
(Image: Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.)
August 10, 2024
Since July 16, more than 560 people have been killed in Bangladesh, many of them protesters shot dead by the police. Initially the protests, led by students, demanded an end to job reservation quotas. But after the sharp rise in police killings, the protesters demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed.
This was the country’s worst violence since its 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. Hasina called the protesters "terrorists" and urged people to resist those she described as "arsonists". Last Sunday, August 3, at least 90 people were killed, mostly protesters shot by security forces, the BBC reported.
On August 5, Sheikh Hasina, who ruled the country as an authoritarian for the past 15 years, resigned and fled to India. Tens of thousands of Bangladeshis took to the streets to celebrate the end of her repressive rule. In some places, however, celebrations turned violent, with hundreds killed or injured as demonstrators attacked members of the police, “who are widely despised for years of rampant human rights abuses, including during the protest that led to Hasina’s resignation,” Human Rights Watch, a New York based civil liberties group stated. Mobs also attacked leaders and supporters of Hasina’s Awami League Party and as well as Hindus.
At least two Hindus were killed and more than 100 injured as Muslim mobs damaged more than 200 Hindu homes and businesses and more than 15 Hindu temples, according to The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council. "There is deep apprehension, anxiety and uncertainty among minorities across the country," the Council stated in an open letter yesterday, according to Reuters.
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