A suggestion: Please give at least one capital punishment to one criminal guilty of these attacks
- How can the violence be stopped?
Every modern society and state has the duty to protect minorities, and ensure equal rights for them. If anywhere, minorities feel insecure, and are tortured or persecuted by the majority community or any group of the majority community, it is a shortcoming of that society and a failure of the state.
Every modern state has the duty to provide equal rights to each citizen, but it should give extra attention to the minority community.
In the ancient world, there has been rampant persecution of races, castes, and ethnic groups. The modern world has not come out of this chronic harm, but rather is carrying on in a different manner. Sometimes we are carrying it out in the name of politics, in the name of religion, and in the name of race. Most of the time, it is committed by some opportunist group.
The 1946 communal conflict started in the name of religion. History says the British provoked it. Who provoked it is not the main concern. India, along with Bengal, had to pay too much of a price. We cut up our land geographically, killed our own brothers, and raped our own sisters.
Anyway, the present situation is different. The communal conflicts are now a part of history. Persecution, torture, preplanned killings, and looting are the present condition.
After starting the war crimes trial in Bangladesh, the Jamaat-e-Islami, backed by the BNP, has started attacking the minorities. They have killed minority people, and torched and looted their homes. They have broken temples and religious idols.
It turned severe after the verdict of Sayedee, one of the main war criminals. It was havoc for the country. They attacked government property and the Awami League people, but their attack on the minorities was a planned game. From the beginning of the war crimes trials, Jamaat, along with the BNP, were attacking minorities with a specific goal.
By attacking them, they wanted a reaction out of India. If any communal party or group acted in the same way, they would be able to create a communal sentiment in Bangladesh. They tried repeatedly. In spite of their efforts, they failed.
They wanted to ruin the election, but they failed in that endeavour. That failure made them so aggravated that they played that card again. They hoped that this time, any Indian communal party or group would react.
Now Sheikh Hasina is in power again, so she will try her best to give security to the minority people. The minority people of Bangladesh also believe that Sheikh Hasina can give them more protection, because she is not only the head of the government which claims to be secular, she is also the daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
So now, the ball is in the court of the prime minister. She has to ensure the security of the minority people, and she has to make sure that the minorities are safe in Bangladesh forever. We Bengalis and Bangladeshis have a certain pride. We were once a part of British India, but we declared our independence based on secularism.
We are the first nation of this subcontinent to include secularism in our constitution. India has followed later. So, we are ahead in this particular region. That is why we have to work towards stopping this minority persecution for all times.
This opportunity, or holy duty for humanity, now rests on the shoulders of our prime minister. The killing of a minority is not a normal killing. Arson, looting, and the rape of a minority person cannot be considered regular crimes. These are crimes against humanity.
The PM has absolute majority in the parliament. She can easily make a law for the quick and correct punishment for criminals who attack, kill, rape and commit arson on minorities. This law will have to be tough. A suggestion: Please give at least one capital punishment to one criminal guilty of these attacks.
This will set an example and will help to deter these crimes, and will also serve as a guideline for this subcontinent to end this minority persecution.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
I fully endorse author’s views on minority issue except that the proof-less blanket blame that the author has hurled against BNP/Jamat.Even though in many cases his assertion could be true in the absence of a proper probe such blanket claims may do more injustice than justice and fail to identify the real culprits. Therefore,most important thing that this government ought to do is to establish an independent commission of inquiry and investigate these criminal activities without any political bias, bring the perpetrators to justice and once the guilty are identified and crime determined, give as the author suggests, maximum punishment including death, where these warrant.
Mr. ADK’s comments partly endorsed, I must say that the writer of this article is ignorant of history, jaundiced-eyed and a ‘misguided genius’ (?). Bangladesh was born in 1971 but India? Secularism was India’s ideology and incorporated in the constitution of Bangladesh only after independence. And what is better in secularism? Being a secular country, what has India done to stop more than a dozen communal riots every year? The most recent example is the violent riot of Muzaffarnagar, UP, India as a result of which more than 60 Muslims got killed and more than 10,000 people are still living in tents, suffering inhuman conditions. So the fatal disease breeds neither religion nor secularism. It’s a psychological disease deeply ingrained in the mindset of a section of the people of almost every religion. Such people albeit claim to be following a particular religion, are neither pious nor honest. They are opportune hunters and rogues and should be treated as such. In truth those who profess secularism are neither pious nor humanist. They are just pretenders and opportunists.
Completely disagree with Mr. Safis last two sentences which tends to suggest a hypocritical mind and an aura of an all knowing person reading well into the minds of Secularists. Alternately it would seem he is a fanatical fundamentalist but would not like to disrobe his garb.