Pradip Sarkar, a shopkeeper in the Hajiganj area in Chandpur district of Bangladesh, was getting ready for the Ashtami puja on October 13. He was planning to visit the nearby Durga Puja pandal with his elderly mother, wife and two children, as he does every year. He closed his shop in the Hajiganj main market by 11 am and returned home to accompany his family to offer prayer to ‘Thakur Maa’ in the nearby puja pandal. But as soon as he reached home, the unexpected news broke in his locality. Radical Muslim miscreants attacked the Hajiganj puja pandal, destroyed the Durga Idol and even bit the devotees out there. Sarkar asked his family to be inside their homes and rushed to the puja pandal. But by the time he reached there, everything had come crumbling down. Thakur Maa or Durga Idol was broken and fallen aside, pandal was totally destroyed, devotees were crying, and everyone was scared. Sarkar sat near the broken Durga idol; he knew the brutality would spread with time; Sarkar has many experiences in the past. By the time it is dark, a radical Muslim mob gathered in the street, iron rods and sharp weapons in their hands, and attacked Hindu localities in Hajigang town. Shops were looted, Mandir were attacked, Hindu gods’ idols were vandalised and miscreants set ablaze houses of Hindu people. The barbaric attacks on Durga puja pandals, idols and Mandirs was not limited to Hajiganj town. What started with a pre-planned rumour of a Hindu youth insulting the Quran in a puja pandal in nearby Comilla spread to entire Bangladesh as generally happens. As per the version of Bangladesh Police the youth who did that mischief turned out to be one Hussain.
Gobinda Chandra Pramanik, Secretary General, Bangladesh Jatio Hindu Mohajote said, “It is impossible to put in words the horrible pictures I saw in Comilla, Hajiganj and Chandpur”. It was horrible. Women were raped, houses were set ablaze, properties were looted, the radical Muslim miscreants destroyed puja pandals, Mandirs, Idols of Hindu Gods. The screams of Hindu women, numbness of the children was unbearable. The Durga idols were brought from the mandap and thrown in the streets, and burnt in all kinds of disrespect. In most of the temples, the idol’s hands, legs and heads have been broken. Police phone numbers are ringing, but there is no one to pick the calls. Despite repeated calls to the police stations, they didn’t arrive to save the poor Hindus, Pramanik added with sheer frustration and anger.
Four women of a Hindu family, including a 10-year-old child and her mother, in Hajiganj area were raped by the Islamic terror gang. The minor succumbed to death in the hospital the next morning
Fierce violence against the Hindu community started on the morning of October 13 and continued for long. With darkness, the meanness of the radical Muslim terror groups increased. Four women of a Hindu family, including a 10-year-old child and her mother, in Hajiganj area were raped by the Islamic terror gang. The minor succumbed to death in the hospital the next morning. In the Rongpur District of Bangladesh, the house of a widow, Purnima Rani, was burnt and looted by the ruthless radical mob at midnight of October 14. Her two young daughters have been missing since then. During the last four days, the poor mother has been wailing and searching for her missing daughter, but there is no one to help her. Jatan Saha, a 42-year-old man from Govindapur of Comilla district went to Noakhali with his family to spend the puja holiday at his only sister’s place. His sister’s in-law’s family in the Chaumuhani area of Noakhali organise Durga puja at their own premises every year. This year too till the Saptami puja it was all celebration. But on the Ashtami puja night, hundreds of radical Muslim goons vandalised many puja pandals in Noakhali. The mob entered Jatan Das' sister's house and vandalised the Durga idol.
Huge numbers of perpetrators entered the temple premises with iron and bamboo rods and sharp weapons in their hands and vandalised everything. The saints tried to prevent them but the violent mob outnumbered them. The terror gang wrecked the temple office and looted the money and belongings
Brave Jatan Das tried to resist the terror gang alone. He was shot from point-blank range on his head with a country-made pistol. Later the terror gang bit him to death in front of his five years old son and the entire family. The terror gang snatched all jewellery items of the women; they even robbed the décor lighting of the puja pandals. These are a few examples only. At least nine Hindus were brutally killed in the ongoing crusade against Sanatani in Bangladesh. According to a report, the Hindu community is being targeted in 26 districts of Bangladesh. Hindu Mahajut claims that at least 70 Durga Puja pandals and more than 80 Durga idols, more than 200 Mandirs were vandalised by the radical Muslim groups. The perpetrators burned and looted around 300 houses and shops of Hindu people in the last six days. While writing the article, information is coming from the other side of the boundary that the ferocity against the minority Hindus continues in Bangladesh.
The ISKCON Attack
Several Hindu Mandirs and puja pandals of the Noakhali district were wrecked by the Islamic terror groups in two days, starting from the night of Ashtami puja on October 13. The Muslim terror group was targeting the ISKCON temple of Noakhali. On October 15, the terror group attacked the temple in the daylight. The beautiful temple in the Chaumuhani area was reduced to the debris of stone. One brave Krishna Bhakta, Partha Chandra Das, who tried to resist the Muslim terror gang, was brutally killed inside the temple premises. The dead body of another saint Pranta Chandra Das was found in a nearby pond the next morning. Four saints of the Noakhali ISKCON temple are still missing. Paresh Chandra Das, who survived the ruthless attack by the Islamic terror gang, said, “It was lord Sri Krishna’s blessing that I survived on that creepy day.
A book published in 2016 written by Dhaka University professor Dr Abdul Barkat claims that there will be no Hindu in Bangladesh by 2050. The book revealed that due to the constant atrocities of radical Muslims, 600 Hindu people leave Bangladesh every day, some of them are being forcefully converted, and some are being killed. This way, it will take only 30 years to vanish the Hindu community from Bangladesh
But my fellow saints were not so lucky. We are worried about the fate of the four missing saints of our temple.” Saint Paresh Das said in a slackening voice that there were around 20 saints in the temple when they attacked. Huge numbers of perpetrators entered the temple premises with iron and bamboo rods and sharp weapons in their hands and vandalised everything. The saints tried to prevent them but the violent mob outnumbered them. The terror gang wrecked the temple office and looted the money and belongings. They also demolished the bookstall and destroyed the holy books. The goons tried to enter the main temple to destroy it, but the saints resisted the radical with sharp weapons. They killed one Krishna Bhakta on the spot and abducted another, whose body was found in a nearby pond the next morning. The terror gang significantly damaged the temple.
The Loud Protest
On October 18, thousands of Bangladeshi Hindu marched to the Sabak Chattar in the capital city Dhaka to protest the ongoing violence against the Hindu community in the country. Journalist and activist Asis Mallick told ‘Organiser” that it is one of the biggest protests by the Hindu community against the atrocity of radical Muslims in the last thirty years. The protest was on the call of ISKCON society, so there was no political colour of it. Thousands of people came out to the streets of Dhaka demanding justice and peace. Mallik said, “We are neither asking for political patronage, nor we are demanding government facilities. We want to live with dignity, and our faith and religious identity should be secured; this is a legitimate demand.” Thousands of educated Hindu youth of Bangladesh took the protest to the virtual stage. “#SaveHindu”, “#SaveHinduTemples”, “#SaveHinduFestivals” are trending in Bangladesh social media amid the ongoing violence. Shreepad Biswas of Dhaka said that the Hindu youth of Bangladesh now will not sit idle against these carnages. We will take the social media and show all the attacks by then radical Muslim terror gangs to the world.
The planned attack against the minority Hindus in Bangladesh is not new. For decades the Hindus are being targeted by radical Muslim forces. Activist Asis Mallick said that the pattern of attack is the same. First, there will be a rumour in the social media, and after this, hundreds and thousands of mobs will attack the Hindu community, temples etc. They will burn the houses of poor Hindu families and forcefully capture the land
The world must know how the minority Sanatani community survives in this part of the world. Roni Nath of Chittagong, who, as a mark of protest, changed his profile picture in his Facebook account and it reads “Raktakta Sarada”, which means “Bleeding Autumnal”. He believes that because of the social media Hindu community, people from every nook and corner of the country are protesting against this bloody violence. The agony against the radical Muslim attacks in Bangladesh is seen in India, too, specially in North East. Various organisations, including the Kutumba Suraksha Mission, Assam protest against the Hindu killings in Bangladesh. KSM demonstrated in front of the Assistant High Commissioner of Bangladesh office in Guwahati and submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister of the country to ensure the safety, security and dignity of the Hindus living in Bangladesh. The similar protests has been seen in Silchar, Agartala and other parts of the region.
The Declining Numbers
The planned attack against the minority Hindus in Bangladesh is not new. For decades the Hindus are being targeted by radical Muslim forces. Activist Asis Mallick said that the pattern of attack is the same. First, there will be a rumour in the social media, and after this, hundreds and thousands of mobs will attack the Hindu community, temples etc. They will burn the houses of poor Hindu families and forcefully capture the land. This was the trend happening from the pre-Independent era, and now it happens through the internet. The attacks on Hindus didn’t decline after the creation of Bangladesh in 1971; rather, the numbers of the Hindu community declined. There was around 22 per cent Hindu population at the time of partition, according to the 1951 census. It came down to 13.5 per cent when Bangladesh was created after India-Pakistan was in 1971. With constant pressure from the radical Islamic terror groups, the Hindu population further declined in the coming decades. According to the 2011 census, the Sanatani population declined to merely 8.5 per cent. It is an apprehension that the number might come down to below 8 per cent in the next census. A book published in 2016 written by Dhaka University professor Dr Abdul Barkat claims that there will be no Hindu in Bangladesh by 2050. The book revealed that due to the constant atrocities of radical Muslims, 600 Hindu people leave Bangladesh every day, some of them are being forcefully converted, and some are being killed. This way, it will take only 30 years to vanish the Hindu community from Bangladesh.
Leave a Comment