Bangladesh Hindus Call for an End to Violence

WASHINGTON (08-13) – A vociferous crowd of Bangladeshi Hindus demonstrated at the White House on August 10, calling for an end to religious discrimination and violence directed against them in the aftermath of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation and hasty departure to India. As head of the Awami League Party coupled with her 15-year reign as prime minister, her popularity has waned over time as her government had become more authoritarian. The weeks of violent protests and demonstrations beginning in July when scores of university students and others were killed was the beginning of the end of her strong grip on power.

In the wake of her departure, mob violence was soon directed against Hindus and Awami party members and others who victims claimed were being ignored by the police and military who stood by and did not intervene.

The cause of the unrest was centered on a recent High Court decision in July to “reinstate quotas that reserved some 30% of government jobs for descendants of freedom fighters.” The system came about after the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan, and in the nation of 170 million in which 18 million young people are unemployed, the court’s decision was all it took to create great social unrest as future economic prospects for students and other non-descendants dried up overnight.

University students soon began peaceful protests that evolved into confrontations with police and paramilitary troops who Sheikh Hasina unleashed on the. In using extraordinary brutal tactics, she lost the support of the general population when over 300 people were killed and 2,500 arrested. The result of these actions caused Hasina to resign her position on August 5 and depart.

In her absence, the widely respected 84-year-old Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Lauriat (2006) and co-recipient in microfinance finance for the poor, was appointed interim Chief Advisor, whose popularity for years was viewed by Sheikh Hasina as a political threat. Yunus, in turn, has called for an end to the continued violence and threatened to step down from his post if his call is not heeded.

Hindu protesters at the White House held signs criticizing western media asking why they have mostly remained silent about the violence directed against them by not exposing the killings, lynchings, property destruction and stoning they have suffered. They also called for a boycott of Bangladesh’s major and thriving manufactured garments industry that contributed $47.38 billion to the economy in 2023.

Religious strife and killings of ethnic, caste and other minorities in the subcontinent are nothing new and the hatred it breeds recognizes no borders in one of the most densely populated regions in the world. Since independence from their former colonial masters, countries in the region have from time-to-time experienced outbreaks of extreme violence causing great suffering among its most diverse population.

Report and photos by Phil Pasquini

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