US shows Concern over minorities killings in Bangladesh

Washington DC, May 12: "Members of the South Asian community held a candlelight vigil at the historic Dupont Circle to protest against the recent spate of murders targeting minorities in Bangladesh", according to news agency PTI.

Presently, religious intolerance is going on against minorities and their practitioners. Especially in countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar there is a whole other conspiracy going on. Among minorities such as Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, secularists and several others, mainly Hindus are targeted by Islamic extremists. Scandalous genocide of Hindus is taking place.

Among the attendees, there were several organisations such as

• BHBCUC (The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council)
• HAF (The Hindu American Foundation)
• WHCA (World Hindu Council of America)
• CFI (Centre for Inquiry)
• LGBT groups (Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender)

Intellectuals such as Tapan Dutta of BHBCUC condemned the attacks and further added that he has urged Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to take stronger measures to secure the homes, temples, and the lives of the country's indigenous Hindu community.

One of the members of the vigil said "we are quite concerned with the ongoing killings of our Hindu brothers and sisters. We condemn the attacks and demand the strongest action against the perpetrators."

Bangladesh: A deeper look

Situations in Bangladesh are becoming worse day by day. Recently a 28-year-old Nazimuddin Samad was hacked to death in the national capital after speaking out against the persecution of religious minorities and social media. Brutal assassinations targeting minorities, secular bloggers, intellectuals and foreigners have now become a regular occurrence. Simply in the name of Hindu, women are raped here.

The Bangladesh National Party was accused of supporting "Anti-Hindu" views and sentiments among the Muslims majority. On International Human Rights Day, Bangladeshi Hindu minorities protested against the injustice and atrocities inflicted on them.

Tofique Hassan (Senior Counsellor at the Embassy of Bangladesh) mentioned that "Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina adheres firmly to a zero tolerance policy against terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations, and violent extremism." Even the US Ambassador has expressed concern regarding attacks on the Hindus community of Bangladesh.

Many bloggers, secularists including Avijit Roy,Oysiqur Rahman, Ananta Bijoy Das and Niloy Neel, have been hacked to death. Islamic extremist group has even claimed the responsibility for many of them. However, Bangladesh has denied those claims saying that the killers are home grown, extremists. The local minority says if these people are not spared then we have hardly any left for ourselves.

Alexandra Stark (Research Assistant of the World Faiths Development Dialogue in Washington, D.C.) further elucidates: "Because of the sizable amount of aid that Bangladesh receives from the United States, European countries, and international organizations, the West has significant untapped leverage that could be used to push the government in the right direction." But things are totally the other way round.

Related article: Decimation and missing of Hindus in South Asia

H. Res.396.

Calling for an end to violence against religious minorities, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (an Indian-American lawmaker from Hawaii) introduced H.Res. 396 in July 2015. She mentioned in the U.S House that the government of Bangladesh was expected to protect the rights of all its religious minorities including Christians, Hindus, Atheists and others. She further emphasized the need to take immediate action against this senseless violence. H. Res intends to bring global attention towards the Islamic extremists

Jay Kansara (HAF director of Government Relations) said: "we won't let the people of Bangladesh stand alone as they confront Islamist extremism". He encouraged attendees to support H. Res. 396.

It is indeed high time that major global organisations come forward and take a stand against these genocides. Be it Bangladeshi or Pakistani minorities, Noone has any right to take away lives of innocent peoples.

Prepared by Pritam

Pritam is a 3rd year engineering student in B.P. Poddar institute of management and technology, Kolkata. A simple person who tries to innovate and improvise himself. Twitter handle @pritam_gogreen