Hindus Of Bangladesh Call For A Strike After The Terrifying Incident Of Vandalization

New clashes took place Saturday around 157 km from the capital in the village of Feni where Hindu temples and shops have been vandalized and robbed.

Bangladesh’s Hindu temple has been desecrated amid days of communal unrest caused by long-term attacks on the minority ethnicity’s religious buildings by various Islamic extremists, prompting a minority group to announce the countrywide hunger strike, according to media reports.

Dhaka Tribune reported that temples and shops owned by Hindus were vandalized and robbed in Feni, 157 km from the capital, after demonstrators were attacked while protesting attacks on Durga Puja venues in several locations across the country.
As a result of the clashes, at least 40 people, including the officer in charge of Feni Model Police Station, Nizamuddin, were injured, the report said.

According to the report, authorities deployed additional police forces and the paramilitary agency, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), during clashes spanned from 4:30 PM until midnight (local time) Saturday night when Hindu temples and businesses were vandalized and looted.

Some miscreants are said to have destroyed six idols at the Daniapara Maha Shoshan Kali Mandir in Rashunia union of Sirajdikhan Upazila in Munshiganj.

The report said the protests and vandalism against Hindu temples during the Durga Puja celebrations continued on Saturday throughout the country, along with the vandalism that sparked public outrage. At the same time, in Bangladesh’s southeast port city of Chittagong, the Muslim and Christian organizations have announced a sit-in and hunger strike on October 23 in protest of the attacks during Durga Puja. Advocate Rana Dasgupta, the council’s general secretary, told a press conference at the Chittagong Press Club that protest events will take place in Shahbagh and Andarkilla in Dhaka.
Forum participants observed a six-hour strike in Chittagong on Saturday before making the announcement.

During the Durga Puja celebrations, people were subject to violence, rampant vandalism, and mayhem, resulting in the Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad requiring those involved to be punished severely.

Milan Kanti Dutta, president of the organization, said that if the government failed to respond to their demands, they would launch a more aggressive campaign. “Among the assurances we have received from everyone, from the ruling party’s general secretary to the home minister, is that they are informed about all the issues. How come you don’t punish the guilty parties when you know everything?”, he questioned.

It was the general secretary of ISKCON Bangladesh, Charu Chandra Das Brahmachari, who made the warning that community members would not stand by and watch the attack.

“Our assessment is that fundamentalists are trying to disrupt religious harmony by encouraging hatred in such a way. Furthermore, we know some politicians from the ruling party are associated with such heinous crimes at some locations. It is imperative that the prime minister not lose his strength and take action against them as well,” he said.

Additionally, the forum leaders urged the passage of a minority protection law and the establishment of a national minority council.

While the Awami League-supported Blue Panel teachers of Dhaka University strongly condemned Saturday’s vandalism at several Durga Puja sites and idols around the country, they were silent on Sunday.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Hasan Mahmud criticized the opposition for engineering violence on Saturday, blaming its leadership, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

The BNP-Jamaat is involved in communal incitement. As a result, the BNP-Jamaat chose to follow the path of various conspiracies rather than take on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her party.

The Minister of External Affairs said the incident in Comilla has caused communal tensions across the country because of a political motive.

In a statement, Mahmud said CCTV footage was helping police identify people who vandalised temples and attacked law enforcement.

In addition to the masterminds of the violence, he said, the criminals will also be brought to justice.

Across more than half of the administrative districts of Bangladesh, paramilitary forces have been deployed to deal with days of unrest and violence over alleged blasphemy that culminated in the conclusion of the Durga Puja celebrations amidst communal unrest and violence.

The paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has expanded their surveillance from 22 to 34 out of 64 administrative districts in the last past four years.
In the past three days, sporadic violence has taken place throughout the country and the elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) expects to arrest some of the key perpetrators.

There were clashes between Muslim bigots and the police Wednesday and Thursday at Hajiganj sub-district in central Chandpur during which almost five people died and scores more were injured.

As part of her promise to bring to justice the culprits behind the violence, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said anyone involved in the attacks on Hindu temples and Durga Puja venues in Comilla will not be spared.

Comilla has been thoroughly investigated in connection with the incidents. Everyone will be held accountable and it doesn’t matter what religion they belong to because all the culprits will be hunted down and punished, she said when she exchanged greetings with Hindu community members during a Durga Puja celebration at Dhakeshwari National Temple in Dhaka.

The violence began following an alleged blasphemy incident at a Durga Puja pavilion in Cumilla, about 100 kilometres from Dhaka, where the incident occurred and a probe was also launched following the incident.

On Friday, police and bigots clashed intermittently, while a group of extreme right-wing extremists took out a big procession in downtown Dhaka’s Purana Paltan area to protest what they called “demeaning of the Holy Quran”.

TA traditional procession during the Bijoya Dashami celebrations was absent from the Durga Puja celebrations, considered the largest festival of the minority Hindu community in Bangladesh.

COVID-19 did not allow the processional to take place this year, because of the situation.
October 11 marks the beginning of this year’s Durga Puja.

Hindu devotees offered devotion to Goddess Durga for four days and immersed the idols in rivers on the fifth and final day on Friday.

The annual Durga Puja festival this year was held in 32,118 puja pavilions across the country, including 238 in the capital Dhaka, according to the report.