Dhaka:
Lots of marched in Bangladesh’s capital Saturday to demand protections for Hindus and different minorities who say they’ve suffered violence and threats because the ouster of autocratic premier Sheikh Hasina.
Hasina’s toppling in an August student-led rebellion noticed a spate of reprisals on Hindus, who have been seen as disproportionate supporters of her regime.
The caretaker authorities that changed her, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, has acknowledged and condemned assaults on Hindus however mentioned in lots of circumstances they have been motivated by politics moderately than faith.
Common protests within the months since declare that assaults are persevering with and have demanded motion from Yunus’ administration, an “advisory council” tasked with implementing democratic reforms and staging recent elections.
“It is deeply regrettable that the council of advisors don’t acknowledge the sufferings minorities have endured,” Hindu civic chief Charu Chandra Das Brahmachari advised AFP.
“I’ve witnessed the atrocities towards them — their temples, companies, and houses.”
Protest organisers have urged the interim authorities to introduce a legislation to guard minorities and mandate a minimal share of minority illustration in authorities, amongst different calls for.
Tensions have been infected by the submitting of sedition prices this week towards 19 individuals who participated in an earlier minority rights rally within the port metropolis of Chittagong.
The group was accused of disrespecting the Bangladeshi nationwide flag by hoisting a saffron flag — the emblematic color of the Hindu religion — to fly above it.
“Framing our leaders with false prices, like sedition, has made us sceptical of the federal government’s intentions,” protest member Chiranjan Goswami advised AFP.
Hindus are the most important minority religion in largely Muslim Bangladesh, accounting for round eight % of the inhabitants.
Assaults have additionally been reported on Sufi shrines, with suspicion falling on Islamists in search of to curb different expressions of the Muslim religion.
Saturday’s demonstration got here a day after 10,000 folks attended an identical rally in Chittagong.
Minority leaders have pledged to carry extra protests within the coming weeks.
Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter to neighbouring India in August as protesters flooded Dhaka’s streets in a dramatic finish to her iron-fisted rule.
Her authorities was accused of widespread human rights abuses, together with the extrajudicial killing of 1000’s of her political opponents throughout her 15-year rule.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)