Hindus in Bangladesh try to flee to India amid violence

DHAKA/NEW DELHI — Hundreds of Bangladeshi Hindus have tried unsuccessfully to flee to India this week after many homes and businesses of the minority community were vandalised following the overthrow of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council said that 45 out of 64 districts in the country had seen the targeting of mostly Hindu homes, businesses or temples this week. A school teacher had been killed and 45 other people hurt, it said.

Hindus make up about eight per cent of Muslim-majority Bangladesh's 170 million people and have traditionally largely supported Hasina's Awami League party, which identifies as largely secular, instead of the opposition bloc that includes a hardline Islamist party.

Hasina has taken refuge in India after fleeing the country on Monday (Aug 5) in the face of mass protests against what critics called her authoritarian rule — provoking anger among some Bangladeshis towards their neighbour.

Many living close to India are trying to flee but facing resistance from both sides, local people said. Both countries have said they have stepped up border patrolling since the violence.

Mohammad Rakibul Hasan, a local government official in Thakurgaon district in northwestern Bangladesh, said around 700 to 800 Hindus tried to flee to India around Wednesday evening after some of their houses were attacked and looted.

"They returned home after we provided protection," Hasan told Reuters. "Border guard troops are patrolling the area. Everything is fine now with no further reports of violence."

Early on Thursday, about 300 Bangladeshis had assembled at a border point near India's Jalpaiguri district but dispersed later. Indian media showed Indian border troops around a group of people there.

A Hindu goldsmith in the Narsingdi area, about an hour from Dhaka, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals, said two youths demanded protection money of one million Bangladesh taka (S$11,200) and relented only after they agreed to pay 100,000 taka.

Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, who returned to Bangladesh on Thursday to head an interim government following Hasina's departure, said attacks on minorities could have been part of a conspiracy. He did not say who was behind the conspiracy.

"Our job is to protect all of them," he said on arrival in Dhaka from Paris.

"If you have faith in me and trust me, please ensure no one is attacked in the country. If you cannot listen to me on this, I have no use being here."

The two countries have longstanding cultural and business ties and India played a key role in the 1971 war with Pakistan which led to the creation of Bangladesh.

India, which has a Hindu majority, has said it was worrying that minorities, their businesses and temples had been attacked in many places.

"It is the responsibility of every government to ensure the wellbeing of all its citizens," India's foreign ministry spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, told a press conference.

"We hope for the early restoration of law and order in Bangladesh. This is both in the interest of the country itself and the larger region."

Bangladesh's Hindu community leaders urged other communities to look after the religious minorities.

"I call upon the conscientious people of the country to forget all differences and stand unitedly by the side of the affected people and build social resistance," said Moyna Talukdar of the Bangladesh Hindu Law Reform Council.

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