Dhaka: Leaders of minority communities on Friday said certain quarters are actively trying to undermine the government’s pledge to build a secular and humane society and state. The leaders emphasized that the country’s religious and ethnic minorities had hoped the ruling party would fulfil its commitment to establishing such a society.
According to United News of Bangladesh, the leaders urged the government and the head of state to play an effective role in halting activities that aim to disrupt these efforts. They made this call during a human chain organized in front of the Jatiya Press Club. This protest was in response to nearly fifty incidents of communal violence that occurred across the country in the month following the national election.
The leaders expressed hope that the peaceful environment ensured just before the election, which allowed voters to cast their ballots freely, would continue in the process of building a democratic Bangladesh. Similar human chains and protest processions were held in various districts and metropolitan cities, in addition to the capital, Dhaka.
Leaders from the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council and the Minority Unity Alliance highlighted incidents of communal violence, including murder, rape, attacks on temples, looting, and the grabbing of indigenous people’s homesteads. They demanded immediate arrests and exemplary punishment for those involved, along with compensation for victims and proper treatment for the injured.
The minority leaders also called for the government to implement their eight-point demand, which includes enacting a Minority Protection Act and forming a Minority Commission and a Ministry for Minority Affairs. Following the human chain, several hundred people participated in a protest procession from the Jatiya Press Club, circling Paltan intersection and returning to the same venue.
The rally before the procession was presided over by journalist Basudev Dhar, president of the Bangladesh Puja Celebration Council. It featured several prominent figures, including Advocate Subrata Chowdhury, president of Gono Forum and member of the Unity Council presidium, and Manindra Kumar Nath, acting general secretary of the Unity Council.
Leaders such as Subrata Hazra of the Bangladesh Christian Association, Advocate Suman Kumar Roy of the Bangladesh Sanatan Party, and Santosh Das of the World Hindu Federation, among others, were present. The rally was conducted by Palash Kanti De, spokesperson and executive secretary general of the Bangladesh National Hindu Mahajot, and featured speeches from various minority leaders.
Barun Chandra Sarkar, president of the World Hindu Federation, and other leaders including Milon Kanti Dutta, Rabindra Nath Basu, Ramen Mondal, and Dipali Chakraborty were also present, emphasizing the widespread concern and unity among minority communities regarding recent events.