Hindus in Bangladesh endure rising insecurity amid targeted attacks

Satinder Rathi, a 34-year-old Hindu garment trader in Dhaka, is scared. "Very scared," he says. Till about a month back, Rathi had a flourishing business selling sarees in the Bangladeshi capital.

But now he is fearing for his life, let alone his business, which is shut due to rampant targeted attacks on minority members, predominantly Hindus after the fall of Sheikh Hasina's government, he told Education Post in an exclusive chat from Dhaka.

Over 100 Hindus and other minority members have been killed in a spate of attacks across the country since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government. Also, there have been at least 205 incidents of attacks involving arson and wanton loot and torching of shops and homes of Hindus in 52 districts during the period, according to media reports.

House of a Hindu family was torched in the Farabari Mandirpara village in Akcha union under Thakurgaon Sadar Upazila on Aug 13, Bangladesh’s Daily Star reported.

Some groups having inherent prejudice against the minority communities particularly the Hindus may well be behind such deplorable attacks, said retired IFS officer Anil Trigunayat.

“Such groups are taking advantage of the prevailing lawlessness in the country, and want to create unnecessary scare within the country especially minorities. Jamaat-e-Islamia in my view is one such group that has exploited the situation,” Trigunayat told Education Post in an exclusive chat.

But the government immediately needs to take measures to prevent such attacks,” he added.

It may take some time for the interim government to put an end to such attacks but it will definitely be able to restore order, said former professor Noor Mohammad Baba, Political Science department at Kashmir University.

“The interim government has taken the incidents seriously and it must be working out a mechanism to ensure the safety of Hindus and other minorities,” Baba told Education Post.

It is not necessary that all targeted attacks are taking place for communal reasons, they could be for criminal reasons also. The attackers may even include political workers, criminals, and some of even those who were recently released from jails,” added Baba.