Indiscriminate actions against religious minorities is the order of the day in Bangladesh. It is nothing new but the phenomenon has increased manifold since the ouster of so-called India friendly Sheikh Hasina.
Now under Yunus, there has been an announcement that polls could be held beginning April 2026. But skepticism prevails and many feel the alleged American stooge Muhammad Yunus is only buying time. Even the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is not impressed with what the Yunus regime has announced.
The army chief Gen Waqar uz Zaman had earlier pressed for elections by December 2025.
In the meantime, leaders of ethnic and religious minorities tribals, Buddhists, Hindus and Christians hope the 'revision of the electoral reform system' could give them a better political deal essentially in terms of involvement to ensure their rights in the democracy.
Nirmol Rozario, president of the Bangladesh Christian Association, claimed “several churches and Christian families” were attacked by unknown assailants in early August.
The plight of Hindus is better not discussed at length. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, delivering his 11th consecutive Independence Day speech at Delhi's Red Fort (Aug 15, 2024) said 140 crore Indians are worried about the safety of Hindus in Bangladesh, who have faced attacks during the political unrest in the country following the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
"140 crore Indians worried about the safety of the Hindus, the minorities in Bangladesh," PM Modi said. "India will always be a well-wisher of Bangladesh's progress. We hope the situation normalises in Bangladesh soon. Indians want the security of Hindus, and minorities there to be ensured."
On August 5, 2024, Prime Minister Hasina, aged 76, fled Bangladesh by helicopter to India as protesters overran the streets of Dhaka. Her 15-year rule, marked by allegations of human rights abuses, came to a dramatic end.
On paper, Bangladesh has 'secular democracy' but Muslim hegemony has been an ever lasting feature nevertheless.
“The condition of minorities has never been good. The tribal community suffers even more,” said Bishop Gervas Rozario of Rajshahi diocese in northern Bangladesh.
In the restive Chattogram (Chittagong) Hill Tracts (CHT), clashes between Bengali Muslim settlers and ethnic tribals and a consequent crackdown by security forces left several people dead, dozens injured, and houses, businesses, and vehicles vandalized. Amid the violence in the hilly region there was an added element that makes things further complex.
Around 1400 ethnic Mizos who lived in the Chittagong Hill Tracts fled to Mizoram state. Making things worse, it is alleged that the Arakans from nearby Myanmar led the clash.
About 90 percent of Bangladesh’s estimated 170 million people are Sunni Muslim, and around 8 percent are Hindu. Christians, Buddhists, and people of indigenous faiths together form the remaining 2 percent.
Christians make up less than half a percent, or an estimated 600,000 people, and about half of them hail from ethnic tribal groups. To ensure the protection and safety of Christians, the Church continues to engage with the local administration when needed.
In August 2024 (9th Aug.) Union Home Minister Amit Shah informed, “In the wake of the ongoing situation in Bangladesh, the Modi government has constituted a committee to monitor the current situation on the Indo-Bangladesh Border (IBB).”
“The committee will maintain communication channels with their counterpart authorities in Bangladesh to ensure the safety and security of Indian nationals, Hindus, and other minority communities living there,” he emphasised.
The lives of Christians have continued without major problems since the political upheaval, but “there is still fear,” said Bishop Rozario, vice-president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Bangladesh (CBCB).
Hasina’s Awami League party was once considered a secular and minority-friendly party, but the regime after 2009 saw widespread attacks on both religious and ethnic minorities and large-scale impunity, rights groups say.
The condition of minorities was no better during the rule of the party's main rival, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), in 1991-1996 and 2001-2006.
Even as communalism was always prevelent; the Bangladesh society was generally secular. But over the years since 1971 - the dislike for non-Muslims especially Hindus had turned into hatred.
This suited Islamisation process and there was lot of Mogoj Dholai (Brain wash campaign) and some of these mega exercises were backed by Pakistan's ISI and also money funneled by America, Middle East based radical organisations and more recently by Taliban and IS.
To keep a "political balance" between India-friendly economic and developmental agenda: even the Hasina govt encouraged Deobandi organisations.
Hence radical Islamisation has come to stay and it has stuck the younger generation.
Bangladesh’s parliament has 300 elected seats and an additional 50 for women, allocated to political parties through a proportional representation system.
For years, ethnic and religious minorities have urged successive governments to implement reserved seats for their communities too.
They also wanted the government to establish a new law protecting minority rights and create a separate commission to oversee minority affairs.
Govinda Chandra Pramanik, secretary of the Bangladesh Hindu Grand Alliance, said that without proper democratic safeguards and political empowerment, minorities will face various challenges.
“We have never had a president or prime minister from any of the minority communities. We do not demand it, but we want to have a proper representation of minorities in parliament,” he said.
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