Minority groups in Bangladesh protest over govt's failure to address persecution of minorities

Dhaka: Minority groups in Bangladesh on Monday held a protest in the national capital over the interim government's failure to prevent the persecution of minorities, as authorities announced the arrest of 21 suspects linked to the lynching of a Hindu man, attacks on media offices and violent demonstrations near an Indian diplomatic mission.

Leaders of Hindu and other minority organisations on Monday formed a human chain in Dhaka against the lynching of Dipu Chandra Das, saying the interim government has failed to stop violence, killings and persecution of minority communities.

Das, a garment factory worker in central Mymensingh city, was dragged out of the factory by a mob and lynched to death on Thursday. His body was then set on fire.

His killing sparked widespread protests by factory workers, students and rights groups while India expressed concerns as well.

"He (Muhammad Yunus) claims he will build a humane Bangladesh, but in reality, he is an inhumane chief adviser," Joint Coordinator of the Minority Unity Front Manindra Kumar Nath told the protesters in front of Jatiya Press Club.

The Hindu population in Bangladesh has been affected by a series of incidents against minority communities in the country after the ouster of then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August last year.

Meanwhile, the anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested 10 suspects over the lynching of Das. Later, police arrested two more suspects.

A police headquarters spokesman on Monday said 12 people were now in jail or custody as investigations were underway about the killing of Das.

The office of the interim government chief, who earlier called Das’ killing a “brutal crime”, on Monday said nine people were arrested over the violent attack on the mass circulation Prothom Alo and Daily Star newspapers and prestigious cultural groups Chhayanat and Udichi Shilpi Goshthi in the capital.

The government has called for restraint, responsibility, and unity as Bangladesh navigates a critical democratic phase ahead of its upcoming general elections.

 “Police and other law enforcement agencies informed the Chief Adviser that they primarily identified 31 suspected perpetrators of these incidents, analysing video footage,” his press wing said in a statement.

 Besides, it said, video footage analysis detected three people who “tried to create rowdiness” in front of the residence of India's assistant high commissioner in the southeastern port city of Chattogram.

In an earlier statement, the press wing said authorities urged citizens to stay vigilant against hate-driven violence, arson, and destruction, emphasising that no one involved would be spared.

 Mob violence gripped the Bangladesh capital and other major cities after radical right-wing cultural group Inqilab Mancha leader Sharif Osman Hadi, who was shot in the head on December 12 in Dhaka, died at a Singapore Hospital last week.

Hadi, known for rhetoric against deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, her now disbanded Awami League and neighbouring India, was also a leader of last year’s violent street protest dubbed the July Uprising that toppled her government.

Unidentified gunmen on Monday shot in the head Motaleb Shikder, another leader of the violent student-led 2024 uprising, in southwestern Khulna city. Shikder's condition is critical.

"The Khulna Division head of NCP (National Citizen Party) and central coordinator of the party’s workers front, Motaleb Shikder, was shot a few minutes ago," NCP’s joint principal coordinator Mahmuda Mitu said in a Facebook post.

Former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which emerged as the forerunner in the changed political landscape amid apparent Awami League disappearance, on Monday called for a national awakening against mob violence.

 “Those of us who truly want to see Bangladesh as a genuinely independent, sovereign and democratic country cannot remain merely aware any longer; we must stand up. It is time to put up resistance against mobs,” BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

 Joining a press conference of the Editors' Council and Newspaper Owners' Association of Bangladesh (Noab), Alamgir said he was now 78 years old and "the Bangladesh we are seeing today is not the Bangladesh I ever dreamed of”.

British journalist David Bergman, who is connected to Bangladesh through nuptial cord, in a Facebook status attributed the incidents to a right-wing group of people and Islamists having an “extreme and uninformed mindset”.

"There is a strong vocal group in Bangladesh, from the right and particularly the Islamic right, who think that unless you hate the people they hate (meaning, right now India, the Awami League, etc) as much as they themselves hate them, you are their enemies, and you are friends and agents of those they hate,” Bergman wrote.

Bergman added that it was “this extreme and uninformed mindset that is not only the enemy of a free press, but is helping to prevent anything remotely like due process to develop within the country’s criminal justice system”.