The persecution of the minority Hindu community in Bangladesh is showing no signs of stopping. The situation has deteriorated to such an extent that the ISKCON Kolkata spokesperson Radharamn Das had to advise the organization’s monks and followers in the neighboring country to avoid public display of faith.
Radharamn Das, the spokesperson and the Vice President of the ISKCON Kolkata has asked its followers in Bangladesh to stop wearing saffron robes and ’tilak’ in public which are a symbols of Hindu culture. While speaking to PTI, he said “The situation in Bangladesh is alarming. The monks and devotees, who have been calling us, we have told them to hide their identity as ISKCON followers or monks publicly. We have asked them to practice their faith discreetly inside homes or inside the temples. We have advised them to dress in a manner that does not draw attention.”
“This is not any advisory or generic guideline but my personal suggestion to monks and devotees who have been calling us frantically over the last few days. Many of our devotees and their families are facing threats and intimidation.” he further added.
The suggestion comes in response to the ongoing Hindu genocide and persecution after the ouster of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August, this year and Mohammed Yunus taking control of Bangladesh in garb of a student protest. After Mohammed Yunus got his upper hand over Bangladesh in August, the Bangladeshi radicals have been busy targeting the Hindu minority.
Recently, Chinmay Krishna Das, the spokesperson for the Bangladesh Sammilita Sanatani Jagran Jote and the one raising voice for the Bangladesh’s minority community was arrested at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. He was later denied bail and sent to jail. Moreover, the lawyer of Chinmay Krishna was also brutally injured by the Islamists and is currently in a critical condition.
During the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, the Bangladeshi Hindu community comprising 22 percent of the total persecution of Bangladesh has now got limited to only 8 percent following the decades of persecution at the hands of radical Islamists.