Hill Voice, 2 July 2022, Dhaka: Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen delivered speech in New Delhi, India denying the ongoing violence and persecution against Bangladesh’s minorities especially Hindus. For that the minority leaders demanded his immediate resignation after admitting to his lying. Otherwise if he is nominated from any party in the next parliamentary elections the minority voters will boycott him, the minority leaders said.
It may be mentioned that during the last Durga Puja the Foreign Minister also made similar lies during the attack on puja mandops and communal violence in 26 districts of the country including Comilla, Chandpur and Noakhali.
Demonstrations took place at the Dhaka National Press Club premises on Saturday (2nd July) morning in protest of all communal violence including the ongoing attack on minority teachers in the country and demanding resignation of the foreign minister for lying. Leaders of the Minority Oikya Morcha also addressed the rally. The program was organized by Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad.
In the gathering, rally and demonstration have been announced across the country on Saturday, July 16 at 3:00 pm with the same demands including the implementation of the minority interest-friendly promises announced in the election manifesto by the ruling party.
Minority leaders said that while Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has repeatedly declared zero tolerance against those who persecute minorities especially Hindus, ruling party general secretary Obaidul Quader MP urged party leaders and workers to take a stand against the perpetrators but the tendency of the foreign minister to deny the incident of torture on Hindus raises the question as to whose interests he is representing in the ministry.
From his tendency of denying such incident and telling lies it seems that he is representing a reactionary communal group. Encouraged by the foreign minister’s role, the communal miscreants continue to persecute the general minority people including the teacher community. The leaders demanded an immediate end to all forms of torture and disciplinary action against communal miscreants.
At the rally, minority leaders strongly opposed the remarks against the Prophet made by Nupur Sharma, an Indian political leader, saying religious people at all levels of the subcontinent were outraged and shocked.
They warmly welcomed the remarks of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India in this regard and said that any comment or statement that is religiously provocative is against independent religious rituals and religious practices.
Former MP Ushatan Talukder one of the presidents of Oikya Parishad presided over the protest rally.
The President of the organization Prof. Dr. Nim Chandra Bhowmik and Mr. Nirmal Rozario, Presidium Member Adv. Subrata Chowdhury, Milon Kanti Dutta, Acting General Secretary Monindra Kumar Nath, Joint General Secretary Jayanta Kumar Dev, Adv. Tapas Kumar Pal, Rabindranath Bose, Ramen Mandal, Organizing Secretary Padmavati Devi, General Secretary of Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad Prof. Dr. Chandranath Poddar, Secretary General of the Bangladesh Christian Association Hemanta Koraiya, Raghupati Sen, General Secretary of Sri Sri Bholagiri Ashram Trust, Atul Chandra Mandal, General Secretary of Anubhav, Bappaditya Basu, Chief Coordinator of Sanatan Sangathan addressed among others.
Joint General Secretary Adv. Shyamal Kumar Roy moderated the rally.
