Days after a series of lynchings, killings, and violent attacks targeting the Hindu minority in Bangladesh, ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has strongly criticised the country’s interim government.
Sheikh Hasina hit out at the Yunus administration over the brutal killing of a Hindu man, Dipu Chandra Das by the muslim mob in Bangladesh’s Mymensingh city, and several other similar incidents.
Terming it as a “barbaric and shameful act”, Hasina said it reflects the “dangerous collapse of law, order and moral authority” under the interim government.
She said that radical Islamic extremism has been legitimised and emboldened by the interim government’s actions and inaction.
Das, a 27-year-old Hindu man, who worked a factory worker was lynched by a Muslim mob and his body hung in a public place and set on fire following allegations of blasphemy.
The authorities later said there was no evidence that Dipu Das committed blasphemy. His family also claimed that Dipu was killed over workplace rivalry rather than any alleged “blasphemous” remark.
As per reports from NDTV, Hasina said that it was not an isolated incident and had become a larger pattern of ‘communal violence.’
“Violence in the name of religion has no place in Bangladesh, yet such acts have become disturbingly frequent. This was not an isolated incident, but part of a broader pattern of communal violence that has been allowed to flourish with impunity,” said Hasina.
The former Prime Minister, who is currently in India, said that Bangladesh is becoming “increasingly unsafe for minorities because the state has failed in its most basic duty to protect all citizens equally.”
“The perpetrators of these horrific acts of religious violence have never been prosecuted, and their victims have been denied justice, while Yunus himself continues to deny the clearly religious motivations behind these acts. This erosion of security threatens not only minorities, but the secular and democratic foundations of Bangladesh itself,” she added.
Dipu Chandra Das is not a single case, at least 51 incidents of communal violence were recorded in December alone, according to a statement issued on Tuesday by the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council.
These included 10 murders, 23 incidents of looting and arson, 10 cases of robbery and theft, four instances of detention and torture on false blasphemy charges, one attempted rape, and three incidents of physical assault.
Homes, temples and businesses belonging to minority communities were systematically targeted, the statement said.
Violence against Hindus in Bangladesh has intensified since the death of student leader Sharif Osman Hadi on December 12.
On Monday night (Jan 5), Sarat Mani Chakraborty, a 40-year-old grocery store owner, was attacked with sharp weapons and later succumbed to his injuries. Just hours earlier, Rana Pratap, a 45-year-old factory owner, was shot dead in the Jashore district, where seven bullet casings were recovered from the scene.
On January 3, a Hindu woman in Jhenaidah district was raped by two men who also demanded money from her. When she screamed, the attackers tied her to a tree, cut off her hair, recorded the assault and circulated the video on social media.
Days earlier, Khokon Chandra Das, 50, who ran a medicine and mobile banking business in his village about 150 km from Dhaka, was brutally attacked and set on fire.
Other victims include Bajendra Biswas, 40, who was killed by a colleague at a garment factory in Bhaluka; Amrit Mondal, 29, who was lynched over alleged extortion in Rajbari; and Dipu Chandra Das.
As per NDTV, Sheikh Hasina said that “radical Islamic extremism is no longer operating at the margins of society, it has been legitimised and emboldened by the interim government’s actions and inaction.”
She said her government had worked to “curb the emergence of domestic terror units” and ensure peaceful coexistence among all religious groups.
“Under Yunus, convicted terrorists have been released from prison, extremist groups have been rehabilitated into political relevance, and violence against minorities and women has been normalized,” she said.
Warning of long-term consequences, Hasina said the impact would be “devastating.”
“Economically, radicalisation will deter investment and reverse decades of progress. Politically, it will isolate Bangladesh from democratic partners and destabilise the wider region. History shows that once extremism is entrenched in state structures, it is far harder to reverse than to prevent,” she said.