Responsibility of interim govt to protect Hindus, properties: India on damage to temple in Dhaka

New Delhi: After a temple of Goddess Durga at Khilkhet in Dhaka was demolished, New Delhi on Thursday reminded the interim government of Bangladesh that it should protect the Hindus and their properties, including the places of worship.

“We understand that extremists were clamouring for the demolition of the temple of Durga in Khilkhet, Dhaka. The interim government, instead of providing security to the temple, projected the episode as illegal land use and allowed the destruction of the temple today,” Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said in New Delhi.

He noted that the idol of Goddess Durga had been damaged before it had been shifted during the destruction of the temple.

“We are dismayed that such incidents continue to recur in Bangladesh. Let me underline that it is the responsibility of the interim government of Bangladesh to protect Hindus, their properties, and religious institutions,” said Jaiswal.

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus had taken over as the chief advisor of the interim government of Dhaka after Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government had collapsed on August 5, 2024, in the wake of a mass protest against the police crackdown on the students and youths who had been agitating against reservation in government recruitment in Bangladesh.

A military aircraft had flown Sheikh Hasina to an Indian Air Force base near New Delhi.

India’s protest against the persecution of Hindus and other minority communities in Bangladesh after the change of government in the neighbouring nation, India’s silence over the request by the interim government of Bangladesh for extradition of Sheikh Hasina or its protest against her virtual addresses delivered from India on recent developments in Bangladesh, including the vandalism and demolition of the historic residence of her father and the founder of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, emerged as irritants in the bilateral relations.

Yunus’s interim government on December 10 last year stated in Dhaka that 70 people had been arrested in 88 cases related to attacks against minorities in Bangladesh.

Subsequent police investigations in January 2025 had verified 1254 incidents of attacks against the minority communities in Bangladesh. The Government of India had informed the nation’s Parliament early this month that over 2400 minority-related incidents had been reported from August 5 last year till March 23 this year.