Outbreak of community violence in Bangladesh

Religious intolerance is inexorably gaining ground in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, the three countries which, before the partition of 1947, formed one and the same country. Hindus and Muslims are tearing each other apart on both sides of the borders. All it took was a video of an alleged blasphemy posted on Wednesday, October 13, on social networks to ignite Bangladesh, which has 90% Muslims and just under 9% Hindus (about 16 millions of people).

The video showed a copy of the Koran placed at the feet of a statue of a Hindu god, during the celebrations of Durga Puja, one of the great Hindu festivals. The scene took place in Comilla, in eastern Bangladesh. In the hours that followed, hundreds of houses belonging to Hindu families and places of worship were set on fire, vandalized across the country. About ten people died and hundreds were injured. The violence lasted nearly a week and the situation remains extremely tense, to the point that the United Nations asked Dhaka to act as quickly as possible to “Ensure the protection of minorities and conduct an impartial investigation”. The government deployed large numbers of paramilitary forces and police arrested on October 22 the man who allegedly placed the Koran on purpose in the Hindu temple.

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Although religious tensions are common in Bangladesh, representatives of the Hindu community say it is the worst violence committed on a large scale. “Community violence is alive and well in Bangladesh”, we read in an editorial in the daily Dhaka Tribune asking the government “To adopt a firm position against those who encourage discord between the communities, to bring them to justice, but also to sensitize the population through specific programs” aimed at avoiding manipulation of minds.

Qualified as “termites”

Saad Hammadi, South Asia campaigner for the human rights NGO Amnesty International, also denounces “Growing hostility towards minorities in Bangladesh” and points to the responsibility of the State, which “For several years has failed in its duty to protect them”. The attacks often go unpunished. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, re-elected in 2018, is accused of having, by electoral calculation, allowed the Islamists to prosper.

Bangladesh is officially a secular state, unlike Pakistan, to which it was attached until 1971. But, in June 1988, the military, then in power, introduced an amendment to the Constitution imposing Islam as the state religion. . Today, the Hindu, Buddhist and Christian minorities ask, in vain, the government to withdraw this text, which, according to them, has fueled community tensions by asserting the supremacy of Islam.

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