Bangladesh rights groups warn of attacks on minorities
Rights groups and diplomats express concern over attacks on minorities in Bangladesh following the ousting of the prime minister
People gather in front of the ransacked Awami League’s central office in the aftermath of the prime minister’s resignation, in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Rights groups and diplomats in Bangladesh on Tuesday raised concerns at reports of attacks on minorities including Hindus, a day after the prime minister was ousted following mass protests.
Some businesses and homes owned by Hindus — a group seen by some in the Muslim-majority nation as having been close to ousted leader Sheikh Hasina — were attacked on Monday, witnesses said.
Police reported mobs launching revenge attacks on Hasina's allies. Offices of Hasina's Awami League party were torched and looted across the country, eyewitnesses told AFP.
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"Houses and shops of minority people were attacked, vandalised and looted, at least 97 places on Monday and Tuesday," Rana Dasgupta, general secretary of Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, said in a statement.
The group said at least 10 Hindu temples were attacked by "miscreants" on Monday.
One Hindu man was beaten to death in Bangladesh's southern Bagerhat district, said a hospital official who requested anonymity due to safety concerns.
"Such attacks on minorities are against the fundamental spirit of the anti-discrimination student movement," said Transparency International Bangladesh head Iftekharuzzaman, who uses one name.
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The United States embassy in Dhaka called for "calm", in a post on social media platform X.
"We are concerned about reports of attacks on religious minorities and religious sites in Bangladesh," it said, a message echoed by European Union diplomats.
EU heads of mission "are very concerned about incoming reports of multiple attacks against places of worship and members of religious, ethnic and other minorities in Bangladesh", EU ambassador to Bangladesh Charles Whiteley posted on X.
"We urgently appeal to all parties to exercise restraint, reject communal violence and uphold the human rights of all Bangladeshis."
Monday was the deadliest day of unrest since protests erupted in early July, with at least 122 people killed.
Some homes of the Ahmadis, a minority Muslim sect, were also torched by a mob on Monday, a local newspaper reported.
The house of celebrated Hindu musician Rahul Ananda – who last year met French President Emmanuel Macron when he visited Dhaka – was also torched.
Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar on Tuesday also said New Delhi was "monitoring the situation with regard to the status of minorities".
He added that the government would "remain deeply concerned till law and order is visibly restored".
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