Hill Voice, 29 November 2024, International Desk: CHT* Indigenous Peoples’ Council of Canada (CHTIPCC) uges the UN Special Rapporteur on Minorities to act swiftly and strongly for unconditional release of of Chinmoy Krishna Das and create pressure on the present Interim Government to maintain anti-discrimination against Hindu minorities and other minorities as well.
In this submission signed by the organization’s president, Priti Chakma, on November 28, 2024, CHTIPCC said that Bangladesh came into existence in 1971 with the majority population of Muslims when the Hindu population was about 38%. But it is unfortunate for the Hindu population that since the formation of Bangladesh, they have been subjected to different types of human rights violations by the majority Muslims. Even the Muslim people did not hesitate to create bad images or bad or fake stories against Prophet Hazarat Muhammad and blame the Hindu people just to attack them. As a result of their negative attitudes or continued communal attacks, the Hindu people had to flee the country. Now their population is hardly 8% in Bangladesh.
On August 05, 2024, the dictator Sheikh Hasina fled the country as a movement led by the student front for reformation and anti-discrimination in the country to have democracy, freedom of speech, minority rights and an anti-corruption system. Now the Interim Government has been formed with the lead role of administration by Dr. Mohammad Yunus as the Chief Adviser, a Nobel Prize laureate. All citizens of Bangladesh expected a new dimension of the country’s advancement in all respects like democracy, anti-discrimination, freedom of speech, etc. But such expectation is not happening in Bangladesh. The country is in chaos now.
Chinmoy Krishna Das, spokesperson for the Bangladesh Sommilito Sanatan Jagaran Jot coalition, a religious leader for the Hindu community and a Hindu priest associated with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), also expected that with the change of the government, the Hindu community would be secured from the human rights violations, respected in the Muslim community and hence he started advocating the rights and security of religious minorities and organized meeting with the Hindu community at different places. He had a huge gathering of the Hindu community in Chittagong, a port city in Bangladesh on October 26, 2024. But unfortunately, he was arrested at the Dhaka airport in Dhaka on November 25, 2024 on sedition charges for allegedly disrespecting the national flag during the rally. It was none, but a fabrication by the Muslims (https://youtu.be/JysDAboAD9w?si=rdlSX96TKLqKD0to, a video by Asad Noor who showed that it was a fake flag and not a disrespect) just to arrest Chinmoy Krishna Das. This arrest has proven once again that there is no voice by minorities, for minorities and of minorities though there is a change in the government and Dr. Yunus is an internationally renowned person who is aware of miseries of minorities.
With the plight of Chinmoy Krishna Das’ arrest, our Indigenous organization has also been disturbed as Indigenous people in Bangladesh always face the same fate and hence this organization is approaching you to act swiftly and strongly for his unconditional release and create pressure on the present Interim Government to maintain anti-discrimination against Hindu minorities and other minorities as well.
