The US Condemns Attack on Hindus in Bangladesh, Urges Media Houses to highlight the gravity of the violence
New Delhi: The Washington government has condemned the attacks on the Hindus community in Bangladesh. “Freedom of religion or belief is a human right. Every person around the world, regardless of their religious affiliation or belief, should feel safe and supported to celebrate important holidays,” a State Department spokesperson said.
On Sunday, the Bangladeshi Hindu organized a protest in front of the Embassy of that country to protest large-scale violence leading to the destruction of Hindu homes and temples during Durga Puja festivities across Bangladesh.
US-based Hindu advocacy group HinduPACT’s Executive Director Utsav Chakrabarti said that “It is especially horrifying to see the last remaining Hindus in Noakhali being attacked in this way, 75 years after Islamists demanding the creation of Pakistan, killed 12,000 Hindus and forcibly converted 50,000 to Islam in October 1946.”
According to HinduPACT, Indigenous Hindus continue to be the target of organized hate and discrimination in Bangladesh, a country where the minority population has steadily decreased from 28 percent in the 1940s to nine percent now.
“This recent wave of violence confirms the danger indigenous Hindus continue to face. Fifty years after nearly 2.8 million of them were killed and another 10 million of them turned destitute and made to become refugees by the Pakistan Army in 1971, during the independence struggle of Bangladesh, Hindus continue to be targeted for their faith,” it said.
(_Vinayak Barot)
