Members of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Friday demonstrated in Agartala, the capital of Indian State Tripura, protesting the attacks on religious minorities in Bangladesh.
The three-hour long demonstration was held at Joynagar near the India-Bangladesh check post in Akhaurah, report Indian media.
Five Indian states – West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram – share a 4,096-km border with Bangladesh. A large portion of the international border remains unfenced and porous. A police picket has been set up at the Bangladesh mission office, according to Zee News report.
“Our stir will continue until the attacks on minorities stop in Bangladesh. There’re reports of fresh attacks on minorities in that country,” BJYM’s Tripura unit president Kamal Dey told reporters in Agartala.
Besides BJYM leaders and members, top leaders of the state BJP, including state party president Sudhindra Dasgupta, participated in the demonstration.
BJYM leaders and members on Wednesday organised a demonstration in front of the Bangladesh diplomatic mission in Agartala.
They submitted a memorandum to the Bangladesh diplomatic mission head and first secretary Mohammad Obaidur Rahman, addressing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and demanding that the attacks on minorities be stopped.
Police arrested 24 BJYM members, including the party’s state leaders Pulak Kumar Debnath and Tapas Majumder, and later released them on bail.
India has stepped up vigil along its border with Bangladesh in view of the ongoing political turmoil and attacks on religious minorities in the neighbouring country.
Referring to media reports in Bangladesh, the report said over 200 houses and shops belonging to the minority Hindu community have been vandalised and looted by the Jamaat-e-Islami activists in various parts of Bangladesh’s Jessore and Dinajpur districts.
The attacks took place before and during the Jan 5 parliamentary polls in Bangladesh.
Source: UNB Connect
