Hill Voice, 6 January 2020, Dhaka: In comparison to the previous years, the number of Hindus fallen under oppression has got enhanced in 2019. By the time, 108 Hindus were killed; 9,507 acres of lands were forcibly occupied; 246 images of gods and goddesses were vandalized; 42 Hindu women were raped and 18 Hindu women were gang raped; 379 Hindu families were compelled to leave the country; and 434 Hindu families were evicted from their homes and homesteads.
The Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance (Bangladesh Jatiyo Hindu Mahajot) made this statistics of oppression upon the Hindus in the press conference held at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity (DRU) Nasrul Hamid Auditorium on Thursday, 2 January 2019.
Advocate Gobinda Chandra Pramanik, General Secretary of the Grand Alliance read out a written statement. He said: “The report has been prepared on the basis of information and data published in various dailies, journals, Facebook and messengers and the reports received from the Hindu Grand Alliance leaders of district and thana levels. At this, it has been observed that oppression upon the Hindus has got boosted in comparison to the previous years. The number of Hindu people who came under oppression stood 31,505 persons while 9,507 acres of lands were forcibly occupied from their possession.
In the press conference, it was stated that the post-election period of 2001 had witnessed oppression upon the Hindu community. No trial was held on those oppressive drives by then. The present Awami League government reaped a political harvest by articulating those heinous episodes throughout the world. The Hindus hoped that the present government would bring all those repressions under trial. But the government has not brought any crime including the occurrences of 2001 to justice and none of the culprits was punished even governing the country for 11 years. Hence, the Hindus find themselves landed in dismay.
It is due to immunization from justice, the persecutors have been enthusiastically driving their steam roller on the Hindu community repeatedly. The panic-stricken Hindu community is leaving the country stoically every day. The statistics say that if this situation continues to exist, the land would become a Hindu-less country within 20 years. Whereas, the government has never undertaken any effective role in solving out this crisis. The government has spelled abject failure in identifying and arresting the culprits involved in vandalizing the moths, temples, images and setting fire in the houses and business institutions. Consequently, the criminals are deriving more and more enthusiasm in doing away with the crimes.
In the written statement, further he said that the government is inclining to fundamentalism day by day. Hatred towards the Hindus has got extreme height in the administration. In the administration, despite hate speech is being uttered every now and then yet nobody has taken arrested on such allegation so far. In addition, more than hundred Hindus have been arrested by way of hacking their Facebook accounts and spreading rumors. The Hindus are being compelled to leave the country by setting hundreds of houses on fire, destroying Moths, Temples and thereby creating formidable situation.
The organization has placed a strong demand for non-communalizing the textbooks and alongside to reschedule the election date of Dhaka City Corporations that had been scheduled to be held on 30 January 2020 during Saraswati puja.
2-point demand: The organization extolled 2-point demand for preservation of Hindu existence and in the interest of democracy. They are: to re-introduce the system of 50 reserved seats in the parliament and holding separate elections and to establish a Ministry on Minority Affairs and make a full pledged Minister from among the Hindu community.
Attended in the meeting were: Pradip Kumar Pal, Senior Vice-President of Hindu Grand Alliance; Bijoy Krishna Bhattacharya, Chief Coordinator; Moni Shankar Mondal, Joint Secretary General; Subrata Halder, Law Affairs Secretary; Amiyo Baul, Cultural Affairs Secretary; Sagorika Mondol, General Secretary of Women Grand Alliance; Dulal Karmakar, Coordinator of North Bengal; Shyamal Ghosh, General Secretary of Dhaka City South; Kishore Kumar Barman, President of Hindu Juba Grand Alliance; Sajen Krishna Bol, President of Students Grand Alliance; Tapan Kundu, Office Secretary and Dr. Mano Ranjan Halder, among others.
