In a damning revelation of escalating communal strife, the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council has documented 174 incidents of targeted violence against religious minorities across rural Bangladesh in just four and a half months.
The findings—culled from reports published between August 21 and December 31, 2024—were presented today at a press conference at the National Press Club, underscoring an alarming surge in systematic persecution.
Delivering a written statement, Monindra Kumar Nath, the Council’s acting general secretary, declared that despite efforts to downplay the violence, the pattern is unmistakable—minority communities are under siege.
He detailed an ongoing wave of brutality that has upended lives, destroyed homes, and desecrated sacred spaces since August 4, with arson, looting, sexual violence, forced evictions, and even murder weaponized against these vulnerable groups.
The breakdown of 174 cases paints a harrowing picture: 23 cold-blooded murders, 9 cases of sexual violence (including rape and gang rape), 64 assaults on places of worship, 15 arbitrary arrests and persecution under blasphemy accusations, 38 violent attacks on homes and businesses (involving looting, arson, and vandalism), and 25 cases of forced land and property seizures.
The Council condemned these atrocities, warning that the very survival of Bangladesh’s religious minorities is being pushed to the brink.
Going beyond the violence on the ground, the Unity Council accused the interim government of orchestrating institutionalized discrimination to marginalize minorities from state institutions.
They argued that government agencies are actively complicit in reinforcing exclusionary policies, pointing to sweeping dismissals of law enforcement personnel that disproportionately targeted minority officers.
103 of the 321 recently dismissed police cadet sub-inspectors (SIs) belonged to minority communities, while 16 of 33 female officers dismissed were from minority backgrounds.
“These actions are not administrative decisions—they are state-sponsored purges,” the Council asserted, branding the dismissals as a blatant violation of human rights and constitutional protections.
The Council further accused the government of manipulating the rhetoric of the anti-quota student movement—which champions “Merit, not quota”—to justify a disguised purge of minority candidates from state recruitment processes.
Their analysis of recent civil service disqualifications revealed a disturbing trend: 82 of the 227 candidates disqualified from the 43rd BCS exams were religious minorities.
The organization alleged that this systematic exclusion is part of a broader strategy to erase minority representation from critical sectors, leaving these communities further disenfranchised.
The Unity Council also issued a fierce denunciation of the Constitution Reform Commission’s proposals, warning that any attempt to remove secularism from the Constitution would be a direct assault on Bangladesh’s foundational values.
They reminded the nation that Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Christians fought side by side for independence, forging a vision of a secular, just, and democratic Bangladesh.
“Eliminating secularism is not just a policy shift—it is a dangerous, ideological betrayal that will embolden those who seek to erase minority identities from this nation,” the statement declared.
In an urgent call to action, the Council outlined eight non-negotiable demands, urging the government to end all forms of institutional discrimination, ensure equitable representation of minorities in government and law enforcement, cease politically motivated false cases against minority leaders, hold perpetrators of communal violence accountable, prevent the illegal seizure of minority-owned properties and land, deliver justice and protection for victims of sexual violence within minority communities, implement anti-discrimination laws to curb systemic exclusion, and retain secularism as a fundamental pillar of Bangladesh’s Constitution.
The Unity Council emphasized that Bangladesh faces a defining moment. “This is not just about minority rights,” they stated.
“This is about the very soul of Bangladesh—whether we uphold justice, dignity, and equality, or descend into oppression and exclusion.”
Source: Â The Chittagong Hill TractsÂ
