Feeling persecuted by their numbers and violence against them following the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, they have nearly organised themselves with a strong footing.
They have turned Bangladesh, and they seem to have realised that they have already become an endangered species and are well on the course of extinction unless they democratically fight back.
A new sense of urgency for self-preservation has been instilled in their minds by the blatantly discriminatory and nakedly oppressive depredations of the ‘Jahil’ fundamentalists that propped up the illegitimate interim government of Bangladesh headed by US-sponsored Dr Mohd Yunus, as reported by Tripura info.
Realising that time was running short a huge number of Hindus held a massive demonstration at the historic Laldighi Maidan in communally sensitive Chittagong, reminding the people that Chittagong is the place where revolutionaries like ‘Masterda’ Surya Sen had looted the British armoury and paid for this with their lives for the sake of the freedom of undivided India.
The speakers in the rally including monks and ascetics inspired the Hindus for a democratic fight back and raised an eight-point charter of demands for survival with honour.
The demands include.
1. Formation of a tribunal to expedite trials for those involved in minority atrocities.
2. Appropriate compensation and rehabilitation for victims.
3. Enactment of a minority protection law without delay.
4. Creation of a ministry of minority affairs.
5. Construction of places of worship for minorities in every educational institution.
6. Establishment of prayer rooms in every hostel.
7. Modernisation of the Sanskrit and Pali Education Board.
8. A five-day holiday for Durga Puja.
The speaker after speaker pointed out the ill-treatment meted out to the minority Hindus and Buddhists by the interim government like the forced resignation of 93 Hindu, Buddhist and Christian police sub-inspector trainees who were on the point of being recruited, having successfully gone through their training. “At the time of recruitment through the competitive exam and physical test only 11.65% had been taken in from among the minorities but when they were dismissed unceremoniously without citing even a reason the figure turned out to be 93.94%-that is from among 99 recruited 93 were dismissed; of course, the total intake had been 252, the rest being majority Muslims,” speakers in the meeting said. Besides, about two hundred minority teachers of government schools were also forced to resign by the thugs and goons of the Jamati Islamic Chhatra Shibir and the list of resignees includes an assistant professor of Chittagong University Rantu Das. Swayed by the occasion many speakers went to the extent of saying that unless the issues of minority security, honour and dignity are upheld and protected by the interim government Bangladesh will degenerate into another Syria or Afghanistan. They however added that the minorities in Bangladesh are the most peaceful and law-abiding citizens of the nation who had also made a lot of sacrifices during the freedom struggle of 1971.
