Tarique Rahman, co-convener of the Bangladesh Gono Odhikar Parishad and a key adviser to Nurul Haque Nur, launched an attack on Hindu minorities by claiming that the scriptures of the Hindu faith are pornographic and do not provide any moral teaching. The Bangladesh opposition party’s campaign to topple the Bangladeshi government has been led by Nurul Haque Nur. General elections are to be held in Bangladesh in 2024.
In Facebook live, Tarique Rehman spewed venom against Hindus. He said, “Scriptures of the Hindu religion do not offer any moral teaching — all the religious scriptures are porn scripts.” It is notable that his political party Bangladesh Nationalist Party is backed by the Islamist organization Jamaat-e-Islami.
The video has gone viral on social media and is also being widely shared by many people. The speech received a lot of condemnation on social media, with many users drawing parallels between it and a similar appeal by Jamaat officials to wipe out Hindus in their attempt to stop the creation of this nation from Pakistan in 1971.
Rahman is a close ally of opposition leader Nurul Haque Nur, who plans to challenge Bangladesh’s current Sheikh Hasina-led administration in the 2024 general election. To gain power without holding elections, Nur publicly emphasized backdoor political operations. Reportedly streaming Facebook Live from Saudi Arabia, Nur also attacked the free press harshly, calling journalists slaves. He advised journalists not to question his mission in the same video.
He added, “Yes, I have indulged in a conspiracy with foreign intelligence agencies, including Mossad. In my bid to unseat the government, I held a meeting with Mendi N Safadi, a Mossad agent, to hatch a conspiracy to unseat this government.” In response to Sheikh Hasina’s pro-secular attitude, his organization has launched a torrent of defamatory attacks against Hindus and India.
In Bangladesh, attacks against Hindus are nothing new. According to the most recent statistics, the country saw the murder of around 154 members of religious minorities in 2022, majorly including Hindus. According to the Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance, 39 women from minority ethnicities were raped (27 of them were gang-raped). 14 of the victims died after being raped, and 195991 families experience insecurity.
The Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance said in a written statement that 424 individuals of the nation’s minority had their lives attempted during the course of the previous year. There are 62 persons missing. 360 individuals were hurt or wounded, while 849 people got death threats. There were 953 planned assaults, 127 persons were kidnapped, and 27 attempted abductions. In Bangladesh, where there are 170 million people, Hindus make up 8.5% of the population while Muslims make up 90%.
