The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikyo Parishad (BHBCOP) has urged the Yunus regime to take necessary and effective steps immediately to restore the fear and crisis of trust in the minds of the religious minorities and Adivasi people of the country.
The minority leaders criticised the government for not giving any importance to incidents related to communal violence, and denying the allegations as false, exaggerated, and fabricated, while giving impunity to the perpetrators. Hence, the minorities started feeling insecure.
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The BHBCOP issued a statement on Sunday on the Indian governmentโs move to implement the โImmigration and Foreigners Act 2025โ from September 1. Under this Act, India will exempt any minority from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, who had taken refuge in India by December 31, 2024, due to religious persecution or fear of religious persecution.
In the statement, the three presidents of the organisation, Professor Dr. Neem Chandra Bhowmik, Ushatan Talukdar, Nirmal Rosario and Acting General Secretary Manindra Kumar Nath said that this will increase the tendency of religious-ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples to leave the country.
โThe Bangladesh government should seriously monitor what policy the Indian government is working on in such a decision and what its long-term impact may be in Bangladesh in the future.โ
The statement said that representation and participation of religious-ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples must be ensured in all spheres of life, starting from the policy-making stage of the government, and a zero-tolerance policy must be adopted to stop the ongoing persecution and oppression of them.
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It said: “Sustainable democracy, development and progress are not possible in this country by persecuting religious-ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples and by disrespecting and neglecting them.”
The leaders expressed hope that the interim government will definitely take necessary and effective steps immediately to prevent the process of minority dispossession, considering democracy and national interests.
Free rein for fanatics
In July, the BHBCOP reported a total of 2,442 incidents of violence against religious and ethnic minorities that occurred in 330 days, from August 4 to June 30. The highest number of incidents of violence took place from August 4 to August 20 of last year, with 2,100 attacks on houses, business establishments, and temples.
In addition, 132 incidents of violence occurred from August 21 to December 31 of last year. From the beginning of this year to June 30, at least 258 incidents of violence occurred.
During this period, there were 27 murders, 20 cases of torture/rape/gang rape of women, 59 cases of attacks, vandalism, looting, and arson on places of worship, 21 cases of arrest and torture on charges of alleged blasphemy, 87 cases of attacks, vandalism, looting, and arson on houses and businesses, 12 cases of forced occupation of houses, land, and businesses, four cases of physical torture and forced resignation, 12 cases of attacks and torture on indigenous people, and 16 cases of obstruction of religious ceremonies, kidnapping, and others.
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The BHBCOP lamented that, without giving any importance to the incidents related to communal violence, the Yunus-led interim government has adopted the strategy of denying the allegations as false, exaggerated, and fabricated.
Meanwhile, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has said that despite constitutional guarantees, Bangladesh maintains a blasphemy law under section 195A of the Penal Code. Provisions in the Cyber Security Act 2023 that criminalise content deemed to hurt religious sentiments, and these offences carry penalties of up to two years in prison.
Although the interim government condemned attacks on minority communities, the USCIRF pointed to a lack of accountability, attributing it partly to a โcollapse of the law enforcement systemโ in a report in July.
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Hindu, indigenous, Ahmadiyya, and Sufi Muslim communities continue to report discrimination. It said fears of religiously motivated violence persist with national elections due early next year, but the authorities have yet to outline a comprehensive strategy beyond increased police deployment.
The USCIRF said that religious minorities reported being excluded from the reform process and underrepresented in politics and state institutions.
The Womenโs Reform Commission proposed 433 recommendations to combat discrimination against women. However, groups like Hefazat-e-Islam labelled the proposals โanti-Islamicโ and staged protests. More broadly, some women have complained of more public displays of conservative Islamic views on university campuses, the report said.
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