Mir Afroz Zaman

Violence against religious-ethnic minorities and tribals continues. In the first two months of this year, January and February, a total of 92 incidents of violence targeting minorities and tribals occurred. Of these, 11 were murders, 3 rapes, 25 attacks on temples, 1 allegation of insulting religion, 6 attacks on tribals, 38 attacks on houses and businesses, vandalism, and looting, 2 dismissals from jobs, and 6 other attacks. This was announced in a press release by the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council on Wednesday. The council says that similar incidents have occurred before, but this time a new incident has occurred, which is against a media worker who allegedly presents Bangladesh news in Indian media.

In the five months from August 4 to December 31 last year, there were 2,184 attacks targeting minorities. Among these, 32 were murders, 133 were attacks on places of worship, 13 were torture and rape of women, 1906 were attacks, vandalism, looting and arson of houses and businesses, 47 were land and business encroachment, 38 were physical torture and 15 were arrests on charges of alleged insult to religion. The countrymen were informed through press conferences on September 19, 2024 and January 30, 2025, mentioning the details of these incidents. The leaders of the Unity Council visited some of the incident sites and the information they received was as follows:

On the night of March 9, a gold trader Dilip Das was brutally killed and gold looted in Nayarhat Bazar, Savar, Dhaka. A delegation led by the acting general secretary of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, Monindra Kumar Nath, visited. Among others were Joint General Secretary Rabindra Nath Basu, Office Secretary of Jubo Oikya Parishad Sujit Kumar Ghosh, General Secretary of Dhaka District Committee Pradeep Kumar Das, President of Ashulia Thana Puja Udjavan Parishad Ashish Nag, Shambhu Sarkar and local leaders. The leaders expressed their condolences to the wife and family of the victim of the murder, Dilip Das, and demanded that the murderers be quickly arrested, brought to justice and given exemplary punishment. At that time, the leaders met Additional Superintendent of Police (DB) Tariqul Islam, who was present at the scene, and called for a fair investigation into the murder. The delegation also visited the site of illegal occupation of the land of Santosh Thakur's house in Ashulia Banshbari Police Station by one Jahangir Alam.

In addition, there was an attack on the Uttara office of Mir Afroz Zaman, a correspondent of Indian news agency UNI in Dhaka, who was working on behalf of the Parishad. His crime was working in the Indian media. The delegation demanded exemplary punishment for these incidents. Meanwhile, after the fall of Sheikh Hasina in the student-public uprising on August 5, almost all the important people of her party and government have fled abroad or are in hiding. Among them, the police have arrested many while hiding in the country or trying to flee the country.

According to police sources, at least 93 ministers, state ministers, deputy ministers, advisors, former members of parliament, and former bureaucrats, including former law minister Anisul Haque, Sheikh Hasina's advisor Salman F. Rahman, have been arrested and are currently in jail. Among them are 27 ministers, six state ministers and three deputy ministers, three advisors, 43 former members of parliament, and 11 former bureaucrats. In addition, there are many others, including former mayor of Dhaka North City Atiqul Islam.

Earlier, Anisul, Salman, and other former ministers, state ministers, advisors, secretaries, and mayors were taken to court with one hand in handcuffs. But for the past two weeks, several of them have been taken to court from jail with both hands behind their backs and handcuffed. However, after being brought to the court docket, the handcuffs were removed from one of the two hands behind the back of these accused. On Wednesday (March 12), former advisor Salman, former state minister Palak, former mayor Atiqul, former bureaucrat Mohibul Haque, former MP Solaiman Selim and a few others were brought to the court with both hands tied behind their backs. The government prosecutor has not said anything for a long time about why both hands were handcuffed behind their backs. PP Omar Faruk Farooqui explained on Wednesday.

Stating that he has recently come to the attention of several accused including Salman and Anisul being brought to the court with both hands tied behind their backs, PP Omar Faruk Farooqui told the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court (CMM) that several accused wanted to raise their hands and shout anti-government speeches while being brought to the court from the jail. To prevent them from doing so, they were taken to court in handcuffs with their hands behind their backs. In a joint statement on Wednesday, Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) President Comrade Mohammad Shah Alam and General Secretary Comrade Ruhin Hossain Prince strongly protested against the mob violence against Comrade Lucky Akhtar, a member of the party's central committee, organizer of the women's cell, and central leader of the Bangladesh Krishak Samity, and demanded an end to all forms of mob violence. In the statement, the leaders called on the countrymen who are aware of these acts of violence to quickly raise their voices and build resistance.

In the statement, the leaders said that the whole country is outraged by the repeated incidents of rape and oppression of women and children. The government has completely failed to control the situation and protect the lives and property of people, including women and children. Even today, the murder of journalist couple Sagar-Runi has not been solved. When the whole country was in an uproar demanding the resignation of the Home Affairs Advisor and the safety of the people, the government ignored public demands and became active in suppressing the movement through police torture. The government has also filed a case against the protesters.

The leaders further said in the statement, "We are observing with deep anger and concern that the government is failing to provide security to the public. In order to thwart the countrymen's anti-murder and anti-rape movement, a vested interest group has become active in making Comrade Lucky Akhter a target of ongoing mob terrorism and has been conducting mob exercises at various places till late at night." The leaders said, "Comrade Lucky Akhter is a name tested by the people of this country in terms of struggle. He is playing a role in mobilizing everyone in the movement for punishing the real criminals and ensuring women's safety.

This is one of the most urgent tasks for Bangladesh to continue its journey towards democracy after the mass uprising." The university students are the front-runners in the issue-based movement, the movement to prosecute the murders of Sagar-Runi, the movement to protect oil, gas and national mineral resources, the movement against the rape and murder of Tonu and Nusrat and all other women, the movement to prosecute war criminals, and the movement against authoritarian and fascist dictatorships. Warning those involved in these conspiracies against Lucky Akhtar, the leaders said that the anti-oppression movement cannot be suppressed by spreading confusion in the public mind. The people of Bangladesh will stand against any conspiracy to destroy the aspiration to build a Bangladesh free from exploitation and discrimination through mob terrorism that was created in the mass uprising of 24.