Featured Image Credits: India Today
This year’s Dussehra festivities were marred with gloom and tragedy for Bangladeshi Hindus, as the Hindu minority in Bangladesh faced brutal persecution by the majority Muslim population.
Muslim mobs targeted Durga Puja pandals and attacked devotees in multiple cities of the Muslim-majority country, after rumours spread that one of the pandals had desecrated the .
These attacks on Hindus also come on the backdrop of the 75th anniversary of the Noakhali riots.
The violence, which started on October 13, has only escalated in the past five days.
Muslim mobs are now targeting Hindu homes and temples.
At Nanua Dighi in Comilla on the evening of October 13, a Durga Puja pandal was attacked and the idol was thrown into a pond.
Temples in Chandpur’s Hajiganj, Chattogram’s Banshkhali, Chapainawabganj’s Shibganj and Cox’s Bazar’s Pekua were also vandalised. Hindu devotees attending the Durga Puja festivities iin the temples were beaten up.
18 crude bombs were recovered from the gate of a Hindu temple in Khulna district.
In Bangladesh’s Noakhali area, an ISKCON temple was vandalised and at least one man was lynched by a mob of 200 people.
Over 60 houses of the Hindu community were also torched at a village in Rangpur district on the night of Oct 16.
The situation in Rangpur is dire at the moment. Homes and temples of Hindus have been burnt down. Muslim mob has set fire to a Hindu village in Pirganj upazila of Rangpur district. @UNHumanRights pic.twitter.com/kDma77F67W
— Bangladesh Hindu Unity Council (@UnityCouncilBD) October 17, 2021
At present Hindus are being attacked in Pirganj of Rangpur. Attacks on Hindus continue across the country. If this continues, it will be difficult for Hindus to survive in Bangladesh. pic.twitter.com/ilcSXgoRWn
— Bangladesh Hindu Unity Council (@UnityCouncilBD) October 17, 2021
Although Bangladeshi paramilitary forces were deployed across the country on Oct 15, violence continues unabated.
At least four people have been confirmed to have died and more than 100 others are wounded in the violence so far.
Hindus in Bangladesh are feeling helpless today. The jihadists have ended everything by launching barbaric attacks on the Hindus of Rangpur. They will stop this barbarism only when their target is met.#Stop_Communal_Attackinbangladesh pic.twitter.com/UWKDbzeRn3
— Bangladesh Hindu Unity Council (@UnityCouncilBD) October 18, 2021
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami are allegedly behind these attacks.
Protests were also held in front of the Bangladesh High Commission in Kolkata against the killings.
Hindus in Bangladesh have faced persecution ever since Partition. Once comprising 30-31% of the total population in East Bengal, their numbers whittled down to 8% in 2020.
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