Jamaat-Shibir attacks on Hindu community: Temples still under attack: HC asks govt to arrest culprits
A Situation Note from HRCBM-Dhaka, March 8, 2013
(Digest From the Press)
Fanatics destroyed an idol of goddess Kali before setting a Hindu temple on fire at Hatibandha upazila of Lalmonirhat in the early hours yesterday,reports the daily star.
The 15-year-old Sree Sree Kali Mandir at Bejgram village, 2 kilometres off the Indian border, was burnt down when villagers were asleep, locals said.
Hearing the crackling of flames around 4:30 am, villagers rushed to the temple and doused the fire after an hour-long effort, reports our Lalmonirhat correspondent.
Incidents of vandalism and arson attacks on temples and houses of the Hindus have been rampant since February 28.
On that day, the International Crimes Tribunal-1 awarded death penalty to Jamaat leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee for his crimes against humanity during the country's Liberation War.
Since then, miscreants destroyed at least 22 temples, 122 houses and dozens of shops belonging to the Hindus across the country.
They also physically assaulted men, women and children of the community and set their houses ablaze after looting.
HC DIRECTIVE
The High Court yesterday ordered the government to arrest culprits, who vandalised and torched a temple in Munshiganj, in three days to put them on trial.
According to a news report of the daily Janakantha published on Tuesday, miscreants vandalised and torched the Monipara Kali Mandir at Goalimandra village of Louhajang upazila during hartal hours on Monday.
Following the report, the HC yesterday directed the authorities concerned to repair the temple, restore it to its previous situation and protect people of the minority community in the area.
The court also ordered the authorities concerned to submit a report to it within seven days after complying with the directives, reports our Supreme Court correspondent.
The HC bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik and Justice Mahmudul Hoque also issued a suo moto rule asking the authorities concerned to explain in 10 days why appropriate legal action should not be taken against the culprits.
Home secretary, deputy commissioner and superintendent of police of Munshiganj, upazila nirbahi officer of Louhajang upazila and officer-in-charge of Louhajang Police Station have been made respondents to the rule, Assistant Attorney General Mia Shirajul Islam told The Daily Star.
http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/temples-still-under-attack/
Protect Bangladeshi Hindus, says Amnesty
Amnesty International has made an urgent appeal to the Bangladesh government to provide its minority better protection.
"The Hindu community in Bangladesh is at extreme risk, in particular at such a tense time in the country. It is shocking that they appear to be targeted simply for their religion. The authorities must ensure that they receive the protection they need," said Abbas Faiz, Amnesty's Researcher.
Survivors told Amnesty that the attackers were from the Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir.
In the report, 'Bangladesh: Wave of Violent Attacks Against Hindu Minority', Amnesty gave the country's war crimes trial as the context to the violence against the minority. The report said attacks on Hindus and other minorities were often reported from Bangladesh, especially from the far-flung areas. The latest attack took place on March 6 at Daudkandi in Comilla, where a Hindu temple was vandalised and burnt down. It said on Feb 28 a minority village of Rajganj Bazar in Noakhali was set on fire by the Jamaat supporters. According to Amnesty, Bangladesh's Hindu minority constitutes only eight per cent of the population and has historically been at risk of violence. They suffered heavily during the 1971 liberation war and again after the 2001 parliamentary elections, when BNP-Jamaat coalition came to power.The rights body urged all political parties to condemn such violence against the Hindu community
Attacks on Hindus protested
Demonstrations were held across the country yesterday protesting the attacks on Hindu communities and temples since the International Crimes Tribunal-1 sentenced Jamaat leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee to death on February 28.
Jahangirnagar University (JU) students and teachers formed a human chain and brought out a procession on the campus protesting the attacks.
Speakers at the human chain, under the banner "Sanatan Biddarthi Sangsad", before the JU Shaheed Minar stated that Jamaat-e-Islami and pro-Jamaat student organisation Islami Chhatra Shibir carried out the attacks following the verdict.
They demanded tougher legal steps against the attackers, a ban on Jamaat-Shibir for attacking Hindus and vandalizing and looting their residences and temples, and rehabilitation and security for the affected people and places of worship.
JU Vice-Chancellor Prof Anwar Hossain, JU Teachers' Association President Ajit Kumar Majumder, Jahangirnagar Sangskritik Jote, JU Chhatra Union and JU Chhatra Front also expressed solidarity with the demands.
Bangladesh Janmastami Udjapan Parishad, a platform of the Hindu community, organised a press conference in Chittagong Press Club protesting the attacks. Over 500 households, 300 temples and 300 shops and businesses of minority communities were vandalised, looted and torched since the verdict, claimed the parishad President Debashish Talukder.
The parishad also placed the aforementioned demands.
Over 100 Rajshahi University teachers and students under the banner "Biswabiddaloy Kendrio Puja Udjapon Parishad" formed a human chain before the RU senate bhaban protesting the attacks. The speakers demanded that the government ban Jamaat-Shibir and all religion based political parties.The parishad President Mrinal Kanti, Progressive Teachers' Society Convener Prof Anand Kumar Saha, Proctor Chowdhury Mohammad Zakaria and Sultan-Ul-Islam of RU Teachers' Association addressed the programme.
Noakhali correspondent, : Communication Minister Obaidul Quader has urged leaders and activists of the Awami League to stand by the Hindus recently persecuted by Jamaat-e-Islami supporters.Also an Awami League Presidium Member, he was distributing relief goods on Thursday among the Hindus in Noakhali's Rajganj, one of the sites that bore the brunt of the recent nationwide communal violence by Jamaat after its number two Delwar Hossain Sayedee was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death on Feb 28.
"There will be no compromise with those who attacked the religious minorities. They will have to be punished for their acts. The government has zero tolerance on this matter."
The Noakhali-5 MP urged law enforcers and leaders and activists of Awami League to ensure security for religious minorities with the assistance of local community.Quader gave out cash, clothes and books among students from 67 families in Rajganj from the Prime Minister's Relief Fund.
Govt urges to resist terrorism, violence
The government today given necessary directives to local administration in cooperation with local elites, public representatives and social organization for making united resistance against terrorism and violence, an official release said here tonight.
The government is giving special priority for creating awareness and cooperation maintaining peace and stability in the public life, it said.
Terrorism and violence have been created by the direct patronization of different parties and groups in different places across the country in the recent times, it said adding that the opposition BNP is trying to create public sufferings by calling hartal.
The release said their (BNP's) ill efforts went in vain as people have no support in their programmes and the countrywide public life was normal.
Unruly Jammat-Shibir hartal activists conducted destructive activities on religious minority groups at a number of places across the country, it observed. The government has given necessary directives to bring the culprit to justice for upholding the tradition of communal harmony in the country. (BSS)
Govt won't tolerate any more opposition's destructive activities-PM
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today called upon the opposition leader to shun destructive politics as she issued a strong warning that the government won't tolerate any more their destructive activities to save war criminals.
"We don't believe in conflict and we also don't want conflict. But it is our responsibility to protect the life and property of the people. The opposition would attack the law enforcement agencies and slaughter our party men and we would see it sitting in the houses, we are not that much of weak," she said.
While addressing a discussion on the historic March 7, Sheikh Hasina, also the Awami League chief, said where the opposition would go if the people, who have become the victims of killing, anarchy and other destructive activities of the opposition, take revenge against them in the same way.
The Prime Minister also urged the countrymen to forge a unity like 1971 to resist the new rajakars (collaborators) to save the life and property of the people."You have liberated the country in 1971 by forging a unity under the leadership of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. And time has come again to face the new collaborators like BNP who has extended their hands to anti- liberation forces to save war criminals," she said.
'Minorities at receiving end in Bangladesh violence'
Thursday Mar 07, 2013
New Delhi, March 7 — Hundreds of Hindus have been attacked, their shops and businesses burnt and women threatened by the Jamaat-e-Islami in the current spate of violence unleashed by the Islamists in neighbouring Bangladesh, said speakers at a talk here Thursday.
"Hindus, who number more than one crore in Bangladesh, live in fear and agony... They don't have anyone to help them," said Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajya Sabha MP Tarun Vijay at a discussion on 'Bangla Desh-Shahbagh Rising, Jamaat-e-Islami's violence and the Indian response'.The protests at Shahbag transcend religion, he said.
"They are an assertion that we are all Bengali Bangladesh is a friendly country, and Sheikh Hasina (prime minister) is a friend (of India).. But it is horrendous and unacceptable that thousands of Hindu homes are being burnt, looted and police are unable to provide protection," said Vijay.
"The Jamaat is acting on behalf of Pakistan and the ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) and against India," he alleged.
BJP Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra, who accompanied President Pranab Muherjee on his Dhaka trip, said the situation in Bangladesh "is pretty tense".
Mitra said that "Hindu minorities are at the receiving end in Bangladesh" in the current clashes.
The violence against minorities is "aimed at driving out the Hindus who are concentrated in a few districts where the Jamaat is also concentrated.. The exodus of Hindus to India is continuing," said Mitra.The Jamaat is protesting the death sentence handed over to a leader for war crimes committed in 1971.
Mitra said India has "certain moral responsibilities as they have to be mindful of their security.. And if another exodus takes place (like during the 1971 war), we will have to provide shelter," he said, adding that the Jamaat is like the Taliban in nature. "It has risen from strength to strength and consolidated its position."He said the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) would earlier maintain a distance from the Jamaat and had good relations with India. "But today, they have linked themselves to the Jamaat."
BJP leader and former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh said the Shahbag protests "were a movement of truth and identity"."Bengali is the dominant cultureBangladesh is wedded to language," said Singh.
He said when Mohamed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, had gone to then East Pakistan in 1948 and spoke of making Urdu the national language, there "there were loud protests".
"Language and culture is important to the people of Bangladesh.. and India shares that important linkage with Bangladesh, which needs to be nurtured and preserved," he said.The Shahbag protests are a manifestation of the "spirit of the Bengali youth" and transcend religion, he said. (Original article © IANS / Daily News 2013 )
The Economist, March 9,says: "Jamaat has been behaving more like an insurgency than a political party. Thugs have used children as human shields, attacked Hindu homes and temples and hacked policemen to death. In Jhenidah, in the south-west, they gouged out the eyes of a policeman they had murdered. Near Chittagong in the east they failed in an attempt to burn 19 policemen alive, but killed one with a pick through the neck.
The violence saps hope that a public act of vengeance against Jamaat, delivered through a broken justice system, might inspire some sort of catharsis for the country. Rumours spread on Facebook of a sighting of Mr Sayeedi's face on the moon. Some saw this as a sign of his innocence and it mobilised pious supporters very different from the thuggish core of Shibir."
And added "This seems within the judges' rights under the tribunal's rules. But it heightens the impression of a rush to complete the proceedings before an election due at the end of the year. Politically, the most significant effect of Jamaat's violent fight for survival has been the BNP's decision to tie its fate to that of its Islamist ally. It is now clear that if in power, the BNP would scrap the trials. Its leader, Khaleda Zia, called the killing of Jamaat supporters "genocide", a term usually reserved in Bangladesh for the killings by Pakistani troops which Mrs Zia's allies are accused of having abetted. So the secularism that is well embedded in this moderate, majority-Muslim country may be under threat if the BNP returns to power. India will hope it does not. It was antagonised when Mrs Zia, apparently to respect a protest strike, cancelled a meeting with Pranab Mukherjee, its president, on a visit to Dhaka from March 3rd-5th."
Banglanews
http://www.dailyjanakantha.com/news_view.php?nc=27&dd=2013-03-08&ni=128033
http://www.dailyjanakantha.com/news_view.php?nc=27&dd=2013-03-08&ni=128032
http://www.bhorerkagoj.net/new/blog/2013/03/08/106786.php
http://www.jugantor.biz/2013/03/08/news0992.htm
http://www.jugantor.biz/2013/03/08/news0999.htm
With regards
Secretary General HRCBM-Dhaka
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