Attack on minorities: 10 killed in 3 months

Bangladesh Hindu Bouddha Christian Oikya Parishad

Leaders of Bangladesh Hindu Bouddha Christian Oikya Parishad attend a press conference organised by the body at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity on Friday.

Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council on Friday said that 10 minority people were killed and 366 were injured in 732 attacks on minorities across the country in the past three months from January.
Releasing its report on ‘Human Rights Situation of Minorities in Bangladesh’ at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity, its leaders also said that the attacks on minorities increased in March during the elections to union parishads when five people were killed 327 were injured in 662 attacks.
The report said that most of the attacks were led by leaders and activists of the ruling Awami League centring the elections to the lowest tier of the local government institutions.
It said that the attacks were made over religious issues, land dispute and the others also.
Whenever the victims went to the police stations, police did not take legal action rather in many places police and local miscreants jointly attacked Hindus to grab their things, the report said.
It said that 638 houses or business establishments and 17 temples of minority people were attacked in the past three months.
Of the 732 incidents of attack, 37 took place in January, 33 in February and 662 in March, said the report.
Unity council general secretary Rana Das Gupta read out the report.
He said that Khulna, Barisal, Pirojpur, Chittagong, Nilphamari and Satkhira were the most vulnerable districts where most of the attacks took place.
Asking security for the minority people, unity council leaders placed five-point demands including enactment of a law to protect minority people, punishment of the perpetrators of the incidents and security of minorities during elections.

Source: New Age