RaniI Santayana, Ph.D.

The statement aims to reveal a rough scenario of the continuing different institutional persecution on the grounds of religion and ethnicity. Simultaneously to alert the civilised Nations of the systematic rapid increasing of radical Islamic extremism, who steadily aimed to cleanse the 14 mln. Hindu, Christian, Buddhist and other tribes, the religious minorities, from Bangladesh to make it a pure Islamic, a neo-Talibani Bangladesh.

Eliminating the minorities took place since August 14, 1947. But they have gained unprecedented
momentum ever since the Islamic hardliners assumed power with an absolute majority in the parliament in October, 2001.(*1) It allowed them to make Bangladesh a ‘freehold’ Islamic country. Since then, the BNP armed cedars with their associates Jamat and other Muslim extremists have conducted deliberate, systemetic, unprovoked, savage attacks on minorities.

Atrocities have typically included brutal torture and ghastly murders of intellectuals, priests, and monks; gang rape and mass rape of women, forcible conversion to Islam; imposition of exorbitant tax; desecration and razing of temples, pagodas, and churches; destructing the deities; looting, razing, and burning down of homes and businesses. They then leave with such ultimatums as: ”Either convert to Islam by January 10 or else you will be driven out of the country”(*2).

These persecutions for the religious minorities started since 1947 when Bangladesh had been East
Pakistan. In 1971 liberation war, majority of the victims were Hindus, who were killed (3 million), forced to flee(10 million), women, who were raped (100,000) and many more were assaulted, whose houses were burned, demolished, properties were extorted. These became state-sponsored in independent Bangladesh since the 5th amendment, when the Parliament abolished ‘Secularism’ as one of the 4th fundamental principles of our Constitution. In 8th amendment, ‘Islam’ has been declared as the state religion. The weekly Holiday had been changed from ‘Sunday’ to ‘Friday’, which inspired the Muslim become openly extremists and to move forward.(*3)

Even, the Elite minorities could not be protected by the authorities. 5 minorities professors of Chittagong University have been threatened to be killed if they fail to leave Bangladesh immediately(*4).

The BNP and Jamat armed cedars have not even spared 4 to 8 years girls, after tearing them from their mothers’ arms, they have cut wide their genitalia and raped them repeatedly in turn, even though the girls became unconscious and were bleeding profusely. In the case of minorities, they have mass raped, and routinely gang raped minor daughters and mothers together, forcing the vulnerable sons, brothers and fathers to watch.(*5)

The perpetrators had threatened in advance to fathers of young daughters, who failed to pay the exorbitant tax saying’ Uncle, we will visit you to night,so get ready to entertain us’. This made ten thousands of minorities to flee Bangladesh en masse, in yet another wave of exodus to India.(*6)

The ruling BNP, Jamat and other Islamic extremist political parties openly represent pro-Taliban forces in Bangladesh. The leaders of these parties are partners of crime. For example, the Harkat-ul
Jihad-I-Islami(HUJI) was declared a terrorist organisation by the Office of the Coordinator for the
Global Terrorism/US dept. of State,May21,2001. Fajlur Rahman of HUJI signed an official declaration of ‘holy war’ like Bin Laden against the USA on Feb.23, 1998.(*7)
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