Protests were held across Bangladesh by organisations in response to the attack on the country’s Hindu community. On Friday, a protest march was held in Chittagong against the attack on the Hindu community, as well as the ongoing killing of Hindu teachers and rape of Hindu women in Bangladesh, according to local media. According to Hindu Sangbad, a Bangladesh news agency, ‘demonstrations by various Hindu organisations in Shahbagh and across the country were also held peacefully in protest against the barbaric radical Jihadi attack on Hindus in Narail Sahapara’.
Earlier, Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan stated that the government will take strict action against anyone who disrupts the country’s communal harmony. The Bangladesh National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) also directed the Home Ministry to investigate the attacks and determine whether negligence was involved in their prevention. In addition, the NHRC stated that violence in a ‘secular country’ is never acceptable.
The human rights body’s remarks, according to ANI, came after reports of Hindu minorities being attacked in Bangladesh, amid rumours of alleged Facebook posts slandering Islam. On July 15, homes of Hindu minorities in Lohagara, Narail, were set on fire. Following Friday prayers, mobs began torching houses, claiming that an 18-year-old man from the neighbourhood had offended their religious feelings on Facebook.
The post was made by Akash Saha, an 18-year-old college student in the village, according to locals. They gathered after Friday prayers and demanded the student’s arrest in front of his house. When the boy went missing, the mob spread to the homes of Hindu minorities nearby. According to one of the victims whose home was burned down, ‘Following the looting of our valuables by one group, another group arrived and discovered our door open. They set fire to our home because there was nothing else to loot’.
‘I’m not sure how long the threat of violence will linger. Who will deliver justice to us? Who will provide us with protection? I would have died if I had been inside the house when they set it on fire. God delivered me. But is this the only way to live? I only have the sari on my body right now ‘,she also added. On Friday, police detained Akash’s father, Ashoke Saha, to ‘bring the situation under control’ as they prepared to file a case against Akash under the Digital Security Act. According to the Daily Star, no one has been arrested as of yet.
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