Expressing concern over the persistent attacks on the minorities across the country, the Bangladesh Hindu Bouddha Christian Oikya Parishad (BHBCOP) has alleged that domestic and external communal forces are using the current interim government, led by Nobel Peace laureate Prof Dr Muhammad Yunus.
The group said these elements are torturing religious and ethnic minorities, looting houses, vandalising temples, torturing minority leaders on the pretext of insulting religion, and filing cases and harassing them with various tags across the country.
They said this is a big challenge to communal harmony. They called upon the progressive non-communal social, political, and cultural forces of the country to stand united against this communal force.
Leaders and activists of the platform formed a human chain and held a brief procession on the National Press Club premises on June 28, condemning the recent incidents of violence and eroding space for the minority communities.
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The rally strongly demanded that the government take urgent steps to stop the ongoing persecution of religious and ethnic minorities, including the immediate reconstruction of the temple in Dhaka’s Khilkhet, an investigation committee to identify the guilty and bring them under the law and give them appropriate punishment, and the immediate release of Paresh Chandra Shil, 69, and his son Bishnu Chandra Shil, 35, who were detained in Lalmonirhat following false allegations of blasphemy.
It was later found that a customer engaged in an argument with Paresh Kumar while trying to pay Tk10 less for a haircut.
Latest, on June 26, a 25-year-old Hindu woman was raped in Cumilla by a locally influential politician. Locals came to her rescue and caught the culprit, but he escaped. The matter surfaced after a video of the rape incident went viral on social media.
The protest rally held on Saturday morning was presided over by Nim Chandra Bhowmik, one of the presidents of the BHBCOP, and moderated by YAGMA General Secretary Advocate Shyamal Kumar Roy.
The speakers were Nirmal Rosario, one of the presidents of the Oikya Parishad, Acting General Secretary Manindra Kumar Nath, one of the presidium members Adv. Subrata Chowdhury, Milan Kanti Dutta, Jayanta Sen Dipu, Dipendra Nath Chatterjee, Ranjan Karmakar, Joint General Secretary Rabindra Nath Basu, Law Secretary Apurba Bhattacharya, Member Chandranath Poddar, General Secretary of the Lawyer Oikya Parishad Advocate Anup Kumar Saha, Representative of the Bangladesh Sommilito Sanatani Jote Prosenjit Halder, General Secretary of the Bangladesh Hindu Mahajote Dr MK Roy, BHBCOP Dhaka Metropolitan North President Atul Chandra Mandal and General Secretary Hridoy Chandra Gupta, Member Secretary of Teachers Oikya Parishad Prashanta Biswas, General Secretary of Hindu Students Mahajote Joy Rajbangshi, Co-President of Bangladesh Hindu Mahajote Newton Adhikari, President of Bangladesh Jubo Oikya Parishad Shimul Saha, Acting President of Bangladesh Students Oikya Parishad Sajeeb Sarkar and Acting General Secretary Dipankar Chandra Shil, Pujari of Khilkhet Sarbajanin Durga Temple Sabita Rani, among others.
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