Staff Reporter: In a written statement at a news conference in New York in protest of the sectarian violence of religious fundamentalists and extremists against the Hindu minority in the United States, he distorted the Holy Qur’an and wrote “Quran”. A journalist at a news conference at the Om Shakti Temple in Jackson Heights, New York, on Friday (October 22) evening raised a question about the misspelling of the word “Quran”. The leaders of the organizing Hindu community apologized for the typographical reasons in response to the spelling mistake. But soon a person (Hindu leader) got involved in a debate with the organizers. When he became angry and asked various questions to the organizer and the journalist, a heated situation arose. The Hindu community held the conference in protest of the communal terror of religious fundamentalists and extremists against the minority Hindu community during the recent Durgotsab in Bangladesh.
Speakers at the press conference said that during the recently concluded Durga Puja, the biggest religious festival of the followers of traditional religions, six consecutive days of horrific communal terrorist attacks on the Hindu community were carried out in 26 districts of the country. Terrorists launched a vicious attack on the Dighirpar Puja Mandap in Nanuar, Comilla on October 13 and continued till the ISKCON temple in Noakhali, Chaumuhani, Feni, Chittagong and on October 18 in Pirganj. The heinous act of looting business and setting fires was carried out in Noakhali in October 1946, in Khulna, Dhaka and other parts of the country in 1964, in 1971, in 1992, in 2001-2005 across the country, in 2012-13 in Ramu, and subsequently in Nasir. It reminds me of horrific memories of barbarism against religious minorities in Nagar, Santhia, Shalla, Muradnagar and other places.
In those six days, religious fundamentalists and terrorists brutally killed seven people, including priests and devotees of various temples and mandapas in the country, including the ISKCON temple in Noakhali, raped three mothers and sisters, destroyed puja mandals, idols and looted about 100 Hindu houses. A ten-year-old girl has died in the brutality of the rape of those religious people. One of the victims of the attack on the bank of Nanuar Dighi also died yesterday. Hundreds of homeless Hindu families are stranded in fear of possible future attacks. Numerous local and foreign media outlets, including the New York Times and the Guardian, have reported this brutal communal terrorist attack on the Hindu community, and many human rights organizations, including embassies, the United Nations and Human Rights Watch, have protested and condemned it.
This time the excuse of atrocities has been made by making a drama of insulting the holy scripture Quran, as has been done in the past. This militant terrorist attack on Hindus on the pretext of insulting religion has now become a routine occurrence in Bangladesh. Its purpose is to make Bangladesh non-Muslim.
The Bangladeshi government has loudly claimed to the international community that the government is against religious sectarianism, but you also know that the perpetrators of minority violence have never been tried or punished there, as reported by the BBC on 13 November 2017. Bengali “Why aren’t attacks on minorities brought to justice in Bangladesh?” Wrote in the title. In the wake of the brutal atrocities and terrorist attacks by the BNP-Jamaat in 2001, why isn’t even one of the thousands of minority perpetrators identified in the Judge Sahabuddin Commission report being tried? Surprisingly, as always, thousands of religious fundamentalists and militants prepared for the attack in the last few days, but trained intelligence agencies or law enforcement agencies could not predict what would happen! Due to the government’s reluctance to provide security for minorities and the government’s policy of impunity, this communal attack on Hindus continues unabated. Some governments directly, and some governments indirectly support this barbarism by not judging them, forcing minorities to leave the country. Imagine the tragedy that befell millions of religious minorities around the world, including the United States, if all governments around the world adopted this vicious policy of persecuting minorities.
The main objective of this press conference is to call upon all the conscious progressive citizens of the country to take a united and active role in eradicating this evil, anti-human communal force. It can’t go on – it has to end. And, the work has to be done mainly by the progressive people of the majority religious groups of the country.
In the context of the constant incidents of communal attacks on minorities, the government’s claim that “Bangladesh is a shining example of communal harmony” has made it difficult to convince the civilized society of the world today. This time our Hon’ble Prime Minister has declared a strong stand against communal forces. We congratulate you on your commitment to bring the perpetrators to justice and to rebuild the destroyed and destroyed homes and provide overall assistance to the victims. We hope that the process of trial and punishment of minority perpetrators will begin soon.
The speakers requested the Prime Minister to implement the demands:
A special tribunal should be set up immediately to provide exemplary punishment to the perpetrators, provide financial compensation and shelter to the families of the killed, injured and homeless minorities killed by the fundamentalist-terrorists Medical treatment should be provided at cost, all temples and mandapas damaged, destroyed and destroyed in the attack should be rebuilt, a judicial commission of inquiry should be constituted and a white paper on all past incidents of torture of minorities, including recent incidents, should be published. They should be added to the list of criminals identified by the Judge Sahabuddin Commission, disclosed, tried and punished, and a Minority Commission, Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian Foundation, and a Minority Ministry should be formed immediately; And enact a Hate Speech-Crime Act and a Minority Protection Act, take immediate steps to make the country a non-communal state by immediately reinstating the 1972 constitution given by Bangabandhu.
After the written statement, in the question and answer session, when several journalists asked questions, the leaders of the Hindu community sitting on the stage answered appropriately. At that time, Mohammad Abul Kashem, the staff reporter of Bangladesh Pratidin published from New York, asked, “You are bluntly saying that the government is not judging anything.”
A possible accused Iqbal was also arrested from Cox’s Bazar yesterday. The government did not arrest anyone and shot them dead. It is a matter of process. The law is running at its own pace. He also asked if there were any spelling mistakes in the written statement, including the spelling of the word ‘Quran’. This raises the question of whether it is intentional or unintentional. In response to the spelling mistake, Shitangshu Guha apologized on behalf of the Hindu community sitting on the stage, citing printing reasons. Immediately after this incident, a person (Hindu leader) sitting in the audience row got involved in a debate with the organizers. The situation became heated when he became very angry and asked various questions to the organizer and the journalist. Later he was calmed down.
BP/SM
