Dhaka, Bangladesh – Krishna Das had by no means imagined that his non violent past in Sunamganj, a northeastern district of Bangladesh, would come crashing unwell on a apparently regular Tuesday night time utmost while.
The cause used to be an allegation of blasphemy. A tender Hindu guy, Akash Das, had allegedly posted an insulting remark concerning the Quran on Fb. The remark briefly unfold throughout social media, igniting protests and escalating tensions, specifically within the predominantly Muslim population of Dowarabazar, about 270km (168 miles) from the nationwide capital Dhaka.
Krishna used to be at house when the primary indicators of chaos reached his doorstep in Monglargaon village about 8pm. “I heard shouting coming from the market,” Krishna recalled. “I couldn’t understand what was happening, but I could feel something was wrong.”
Stepping outdoor, he noticed nation amassing within the streets, chanting slogans. Quickly, the nation grew right into a mob, waving sticks and batons. “I rushed inside, locked the doors, and tried to hide,” he stated. “But they broke in anyway.”
The violence unfold briefly, although Akash Das, the 17-year-old Hindu guy from his neighbourhood, had already been arrested through the police underneath the “cyber security act” earlier than the mob descended on Monglargaon.
“They destroyed everything – everything I had worked for. It was as if we were nothing – our lives didn’t matter,” Krishna, a small-scale farmer, informed Al Jazeera. “They smashed our windows, destroyed our furniture, and began looting everything of value. They took money, little jewellery and anything they could find. Even the kitchen utensils.”
The attackers even all set fireplace to a part of his area. Regardless that Krishna used to be ready to extinguish the flames, the public’s tin-roofed and walled house used to be destroyed, their possessions long past – and their sense of safety shattered. When Al Jazeera met Krishna 4 days later the incident, his public – a spouse and two youthful sons – used to be now not at house.
“I sent my wife and sons away to stay with relatives in the city,” Krishna informed us in an exhausted tone. “They were terrified.”
No less than 20 alternative Hindu properties in Monglargaon had been additionally attacked.
“When they attacked my home, my two daughters and wife fled through the backdoor into the jungle,” stated Bijon Das, relating to a unclear area of bushes in the back of his area.
“I have sent my daughters and wife to my relative’s house in the city [Sylhet, the nearest big city],” he added, announcing that a number of Hindu males had been staying again best to defend their properties.
The mob violence lasted for roughly 3 to 4 hours earlier than safety forces intervened.
“I saw that most of the damage was to tin-roofed houses and tin-shuttered shops,” stated native journalist AR Jewel, who used to be at the scene when the assault came about, estimating about 20 homes had been affected.
On the other hand, Meher Nigar Tanu, the govern bureaucrat for the subdistrict through which Monglargaon falls, downplayed the dimensions of the violence, arguing that “only a few homes and shops had been slightly damaged”.
She insisted that some social media stories had “exaggerated” the violence, and informed Al Jazeera that cops had controlled to block a mob from getting into a temple belonging to the Global Crowd for Krishna Awareness (ISKCON), a Hindu non secular motion.
Native government, together with the military and police, are running to revive a “sense of security” for the pocket’s Hindus, Tanu stated.
Nonetheless, worry lingers. In Monglargaon, the village on the center of the violence, many homes had been open locked utmost while on Friday morning, and the streets had been eerily quitness – with safety forces stationed at boulevard intersections.
For lots of Hindus throughout Bangladesh, Monglargaon is a microcosm of the population’s deep insecurities nowadays.
‘A twofold problem’
On August 5, upcoming Bangladesh High Minister Sheikh Hasina fled swiftly from Dhaka for Republic of India on an army plane later 15 years in energy, following a common rebellion in opposition to her an increasing number of authoritarian rule. Greater than 1,000 nation are estimated to had been killed within the crackdown through her safety forces earlier than she resigned.
Republic of India is broadly perceived in Bangladesh as having propped up Hasina’s rule. Hasina and her secular Awami League celebration, in flip, are considered as having been extra sympathetic to the rustic’s Hindu minority – which makes up 10 p.c of the family – than the people’s alternative main political forces, such because the Bangladesh Nationalist Birthday party (BNP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami. Activists from the BNP and Jamaat – which each confronted unfortunate curbs underneath Hasina’s rule – not face the ones restrictions.
Experiences from the aftermath of the Hasina regime’s shatter counsel large-scale looting and the ransacking of nationwide monuments and govt constructions. Greater than 200 nation had been killed, throughout religions, most commonly Awami League activists and police officers, as Hasina’s fall brought on a hunger for retribution and revenge.
In line with the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Harmony Council (BHBCUC), a minority rights crew, there have been 2,000 incidents of “communal violence”, together with 9 Hindu deaths and 69 assaults on parks of devotion, between August 4 and August 20.
On the other hand, investigations through Netra Information, an separate investigative outlet, which scrutinised probably the most unfortunate claims, the deaths of the 9 Hindu males, discovered that the killings had been “politically and personally motivated, not religiously driven”.
In the meantime, as family members between Republic of India and Bangladesh plummeted, some media stories in Republic of India exaggerated the dimensions of violence in opposition to Hindus. “Assaults targeting minority groups are not uncommon in Bangladesh, especially when the government changes hands,” stated 42-year-old Deboraj Bhattacharjee, a Hindu banker in Dhaka. “But the way some particular Indian media, aligned with BJP, are twisting the ground reality and spreading a climate of fear doesn’t help us here.”
He used to be relating to Republic of India’s ruling Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Birthday party (BJP) of High Minister Narendra Modi.
As many as 49 Indian media shops disseminated no less than 13 fraudelant stories about Bangladesh between August 12 and December 5, 2024, in line with an investigation through Rumor Scanner, an separate Bangladeshi fact-checking organisation.
Nonetheless, “since the fall of Hasina, there is no way to deny the fear and insecurity that’s gripping the Hindu communities … mostly in rural areas,” stated Bhattacharjee. Anti-Hindu non secular activists, “who couldn’t dominate much during the Hasina rule, now are in strength”, he added.
Abhro Shome Pias, a 27-year-old Hindu pupil who research at Bangladesh College of Engineering and Generation (BUET), Dhaka’s premier engineering school, stated there have been “countless incidents of violence and persecution of Hindus”.
“Many Hindus have been displaced, and their lands were grabbed forcibly, and it’s unclear whether they’ve received justice or compensation,” stated Pias.
The assaults additionally glimmer a luminous on a painful fact for lots of Bangladeshi Hindus: They are saying they wish to repeatedly turn out their commitment to their nation over Republic of India.
“India is home to 90 percent of our religious sites, and that’s where our connection lies,” Pias defined. “However, the majority of Bangladeshi Hindus do not support the current Indian government or its ‘Hindutva’ extremism,” he stated, relating to the Hindu majoritarian ideology of the BJP.
That force to dissociate from Republic of India will get sophisticated when the vast neighbour is open as peddling amplified accounts of atrocities in opposition to Hindus in Bangladesh, say population participants.
“Hindus in Bangladesh are facing a twofold problem,” stated Chakravarty, a 29-year-old pharmacy proprietor at Dowarabazar marketplace, who spoke on status that his complete title now not be not hidden. “On one hand, Indian media spreads disinformation and exaggerates incidents, some of which never even happened. This fuels anti-India sentiment, which, in turn, contributes to a feeling of insecurity among us, the Hindus.”
It’s an lack of confidence Chakravarty lived via – and rarely survived – utmost while.
‘Trapped inside for 2.5 hours’
Because the mob rampaged via Dowarabazar marketplace utmost while, Chakravarty discovered himself trapped within his store, pondering best of his three-year-old daughter. His spouse had passed on to the great beyond all over the COVID-19 pandemic, and his daughter’s protection used to be his sole fear.
“I was inside when I heard them chanting slogans. As they attacked, I quickly put the shutter down,” Chakravarty informed Al Jazeera. “I was trapped inside for about two and a half hours while they attacked my shop and others nearby.”
The attackers old machetes, threw bricks, and wreaked havoc on within reach companies. “They couldn’t enter my pharmacy, but damaged my gates,” he stated, including that his uncle’s pharmacy in the similar marketplace used to be totally ransacked. “There wasn’t even a paracetamol left.”
From within his pharmacy, Chakravarty’s thoughts raced again house. “I kept calling my family, wondering if our house was attacked,” he stated. His aged mom, father and sister-in-law at the moment are staying along with his brother in Sylhet town, and his daughter is with them.
“If it weren’t for my motherless daughter, I don’t know if I would have survived. I would have had a cardiac arrest,” he stated, his tone cracking with emotion. “If they had gotten inside, they might have beaten me to death.” On the other hand, there have been deny reported accidents or casualties within the assault in the marketplace that age.
“Later that night, I came home and found the door broken, and everything – furniture, clothes – was destroyed. They even ransacked our drawers. In the morning, there was nothing left in the house to use,” he stated. Some alternative households whose properties have been attacked have been left with out even “utensils to cook their meal the next morning”, he stated.
Chakravarty, who additionally supplies plain clinical remedy door-to-door in within reach villages, stated when he visited sufferers, he “saw disbelief in their eyes”.
“The debris, the broken bits of furniture, bricks, and broken glasses all around the premises,” he recounted.
But, Chakravarty emphasized that such violence used to be remarkable within the pocket. “People here work together – even celebrate together in religious festivals and gatherings. This has never happened before,” he famous.
“This will leave a scar for a long time.”
Who’s accountable?
The period in-between management in Bangladesh, led through 84-year-old Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, has accused the Indian media of exaggerating assaults on Hindus in Bangladesh.
Shafiqul Alam, press secretary to Yunus, said to Al Jazeera that there have been some assaults on non secular minorities following the ousting of Hasina. However, he added, “many of the events reported in the Indian media have been exaggerated and part of an industrial level dissemination of deliberate disinformation”.
The period in-between govt is dedicated to upholding “freedom of religion, freedom of association, and freedom of assembly for all religious institutions”, he stated.
Calling at the non secular leaders from all faiths for a “national unity” on Thursday utmost while, Yunus stated there used to be a “discrepancy between the reality and the news published by foreign media”, about assaults on non secular minorities.
In the meantime, Hindu activists have staged a number of large-scale protest rallies within the capital, Dhaka, and in other places since August to call for, amongst alternative issues, rules to offer protection to minorities, the status quo of a minority ministry, and a tribunal to prosecute acts of oppression in opposition to them. They also known as for a five-day bliss for the most important pageant for Hindu Bengalis, Durga Puja.
However tensions escalated additional later the arrest of Chinmoy Krishna Das, a Hindu monk previously related to ISKCON, in November. Das have been rallying protests later Hasina’s removing. He used to be detained underneath a colonial-era sedition legislation later an area flesh presser accused him of insulting the Bangladeshi flag through elevating a saffron flag (repeatedly related to Hinduism) on govern of it at a rally calling for an finish to the violence in opposition to Hindus.
His arrest and next bail denial caused a stream of protests, culminating in a fatal accident with police when a Muslim attorney used to be hacked to dying outdoor a Chattogram court docket, allegedly through the supporters of ISKCON.
Police arrested greater than 20 people in reference to the homicide, amid protests through legal professionals and scholars who referred to as for a block on ISKCON in Bangladesh. The Ultimate Courtroom has to this point unacceptable felony petitions looking for to block ISKCON.
In the meantime, Hasina issued a observation from exile in Republic of India utmost while, accusing Yunus of failing to offer protection to Hindus and alternative minorities. “Hindus, Buddhists, Christians – no one has been spared. Eleven churches have been destroyed. Temples and Buddhist shrines have been broken. When the Hindus protested, the ISKCON leader was arrested,” Hasina stated.
Have been Hindus more secure all over Hasina’s regime?
But, some Hindus argue that the perception that the population used to be more secure in Bangladesh underneath Hasina is out of place.
Bhattacharjee remembers dropping two acres (about 0.8 hectares) of public land by the hands of activists of a former Awami League MP, who used to be arrested utmost September on fees of “extortion and death threats”.
“Hindus were not safe under Hasina either,” he stated. “We were used as political pawns. The sense of security many Hindus felt during the Awami League regime was more psychological than real.”
On the other hand, Sreeradha Datta, a teacher and Bangladesh professional at Jindal Faculty of Global Affairs at the outskirts of Unused Delhi, Republic of India, defined to Al Jazeera that the belief of Hindu protection underneath a Hasina management is rooted in ancient context.
“While violence against Hindus did occur during the Awami League’s 15-year rule, the party’s secular stance generally gave minority groups a sense of security and safety,” Datta stated. “In contrast, during previous non-Awami League governments, like the BNP-Jamaat alliance, attacks on minorities notably increased. This continues to influence the current perceptions.”
The minority rights crew, BHBCUC, had previous reported 45 murders, most commonly of Hindus, between June 2023 and July 2024 all over the Hasina management.
A eminent human rights crew, Ain o Salish Kendra, reported no less than 3,679 assaults at the Hindu population between January 2013 and September 2021, together with vandalism, arson, and focused violence, with Awami League leaders allegedly complicit in numerous circumstances.
In 2021, following mob assaults on Hindu minority families and temples in Bangladesh all over and later Durga Puja, rights crew Amnesty Global stated, “Such repeated attacks against individuals, communal violence and destruction of the homes and places of worship of minorities in Bangladesh over the years show that the state has failed in its duty to protect minorities.”
Manindra Kumar Nath, president of the BHBCUC, wired that the minority motion in Bangladesh is distinct and separate from each Republic of India and Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League.
“It’s not a new phenomenon. The demand for a minority protection law and the establishment of a minority commission has been longstanding,” he informed Al Jazeera.
Nath additionally famous that Hindu scholars had been actively concerned within the protest motion that resulted in the removing of Hasina’s govt. “They united to protest the unfulfilled promises and demands that Hasina has ignored for far too long,” he defined.
Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, a former minister in Hasina’s cupboard now in exile in Republic of India, then again, defended his celebration’s monitor report.
“If you compare the violence against Hindus during non-[Awami League] regimes with what occurred under ours, the difference is clear,” he informed Al Jazeera.
“Some attacks did happen during our rule, we cannot deny that. However, what’s happening after August 5 is sheer brutality and a violation of human rights,” he added. “They [the interim government] are trying to remove secularism from the constitution.”
The rustic’s charter designates Islam because the order faith past additionally recognising “secularism” as some of the guiding ideas. On the other hand, this will likely now be liable to alternate.
Bangladesh’s legal professional common, Md Asaduzzaman, advised all over an October prime court docket listening to that he would aid the removing of secularism from the charter. “Socialism and secularism do not reflect the realities of a nation where 90 percent of the population are Muslim,” he stated.
Nath warned that doing away with secularism from the charter would considerably threaten the rights of spiritual minorities. “In the past, governments have promised us protections and rights in their election manifestos, but once in power, they failed to implement them,” he stated.
Bhattacharjee echoed the ones considerations.
“If secularism is taken out of the constitution, it’ll send a clear message that religious minorities no longer matter to the state.”
Already, he stated, the federal government used to be downplaying assaults on Hindus, through suggesting that best the ones affiliated with the Awami League have been focused and that the attackers had been “miscreants” in lieu than mobs pushed through sentiments in opposition to the population.
“The real challenge for this interim government isn’t about combating disinformation from some other country,” he stated. “It’s how they handle the rising violence at home, especially with fundamentalist groups now emboldened. The focus needs to be on ensuring Hindu minorities feel safe again.”
“Words aren’t enough any more.”