As a Hindu, especially as a Hindu woman, I harbour no illusions about the rights that I would have in an Islamic nation – nay – even in a small locality where Muslims dominate. I am deeply aware that a Hindu is but an object of humiliation in the land of Islam. I am deeply aware that a Hindu’s options are either to perish or convert. I am also deeply aware that a Hindu woman’s fate in the land of Islam is far more ghastly – I come from a land where warrior queens burnt themselves to death so their dead bodies are not defiled by Islamic invaders. I know. Yet, the unbridled violence in Bangladesh and the subsequent whitewashing of it after the fall of Sheikh Hasina took me by surprise.
The bane of the civilised is that barbarity always comes as a surprise, even though the barbarity is fully expected. I truly believe that the reason why the civilised world clutches on to straws in the hopes that Islam will eventually reveal its peaceful face and that the barbarians only represent a small fraction of the larger Muslim community is because through the lense of morality, such unthinkable barbarism seems like an outlier. “All religions teach peace, it is its adherents who twist it”, the civilised say. They say this because their own faith and the morality which comes with it makes it almost impossible for them to accept reality. It is beyond the realm of their imagination that such savages can exist – let alone be the norm.
But sometimes, the silent part has to be said out loud. It is never pleasant. But it has to be done. The plight of Hindus in Bangladesh after the fall of Sheikh Hasina is not new. It is not the first time that Hindus are being persecuted. The systematic and institutionalised ethnic cleansing of Hindus was inevitable because no Muslim society will stray from their religious doctrine for too long.
Enough has been written and said about the US’ regime change operation in Bangladesh and how Jamaat-e-Islami engineered the fall of Sheikh Hasina. What has not for the attention it truly deserves is the ensuing ethnic cleansing and targeted attacks against Hindus. On the 5th of August 2024, as the rioters, the US establishment and the media celebrated the fall of Sheikh Hasina, a grim reality started dawning on the Hindus of Bangladesh – they were now at the mercy of Jihadis, roaming the streets, itching to hunt them down.
On the 4th of August, the signs that the violence was morphing into a targeted onslaught against Hindus started surfacing after “protestors” stormed Rayganj Press Club in Sirajganj and brutally attacked a Hindu journalist named Pradip Kimar Bhowmik. He was rushed to the hospital where he was declared dead.
On the same day, Islamists killed a Hindu politician named Haradhan Roy. He was the councillor of Ward 4 in Rangpur city. Roy’s nephew was also lynched by Islamists.
While the indications were evident on the 4th of August, by the 5th, all hell broke lose. Jihadi mobs started burning homes, molesting and raping women, murdering men, looting Hindu owned businesses and specifically destroying Hindu temples. OpIndia compiled a list of 54 such instances on the 6th of August. This was only the tip of the iceberg.
As the violence progressed, it became abundantly clear that Hindus were facing an existential threat.
“At night, they came. They vandalised our homes and looted everything. We were hiding. They grabbed my brother-in-law’s wife and took her to another room. They raped her. Later, we recovered her; her face was tied with clothes. They wanted to cut her throat. To save her, we gave them all the gold ornaments”, one Hindu woman said.
“We were sleeping. At night, they came. They were armed. They warned us saying, ‘Fifty of us have surrounded your house, there is no way you can escape.’ They looted everything. They grabbed me and took me to bed. They threatened me with murder. I pleaded with them to either spare me or kill me. They kept threatening me not to cry. They asked me to give away whatever valuables we had. I gave them all my ornaments, so they left me,” said another woman.
Other women wailed about their temples being destroyed. In a video, a Hindu women repeatedly cried out, “They destroyed our temple. they destroyed our temple. why did they destroy our temple”.
They have taken everything. They are destroying our Temple.
— Nupur J Sharma (@UnSubtleDesi) August 6, 2024
Throughout the video, she wails about her Temple being destroyed, Gods desecrated, and the attack on Hindus.
Don't look away. Don't shut your eyes and ears to her wails. Listen. Remember#AllEyesonBangladeshHindus pic.twitter.com/PRt94ZPV9b
“We are helpless, we are helpless, please stand with us, we are helpless”, another sobbed.
This video is from yesterday. It was streamed live on Facebook. She keeps repeating that her temple has been broken. “We are helpless, we are helpless, please stand with us, we are helpless”.. she wails. #BangladeshHindus pic.twitter.com/hWvD1C2Dym
— Nupur J Sharma (@UnSubtleDesi) August 7, 2024
While the videos are endless, the true extent of the carnage in Bangladesh is perhaps never going to be documented – as is the case with all such violence. Almost exactly 3 years ago, when I was reporting from West Bengal and documenting the crimes against Hindus in the aftermath of Mamata Banerjee’s landslide victory in Assembly Polls, there were several stories of targeted violence, unimaginable horrors that would go unreported. This happens for several reasons. The collusion of the administration itself which leads to the non-filing of FIRs, the state actively shutting down media houses, journalists and Hindu groups from reporting the carnage by means of malicious state action, victims refusing the speak up owing to fear of further retribution and women choosing to bear it all because the societal ramifications of speaking up is far too much.
Therefore, to assume that the scale of violence is limited to the stories that have been reported, would be a grave mistake. If three women have come on record to talk about sexual violence against Hindu women, one can assume that the scale is several times more. If there are images of 100 Hindu homes being burnt, one can safely assume that thousands would have been displaced. If one can record 50 Hindus losing their lives, the actual human cost of the violence is far beyond one’s imagination.
But when one speaks to locals and victims of the violence, one can at the very least, understand the nature of the violence being perpetrated.
“They killed one Hindu councillor mercilessly and hung his body upside down in the middle of the road. I don’t think I can express the brutality that was done to him by the Muslim mob. They have killed some Muslim politicians and policemen too, but special kind of torture is being reserved for the Hindus only because they are Hindus”, one local from Bangladesh told me. He was referring to the brutal lynching of Haradhan Roy and his nephew and the lynching of ASI Santosh Saha – Saha was lynched by a mob and then hung upside down in the middle of the road for all to see.
“My neighbour runs a Kirana store (department store). They went to his house and burnt his house. They also burnt his shop and robbed inventory worth lakhs. When he tried to protest, they threatened to kill him and rape his wife. They were repeatedly calling him ‘Kafir’ and telling him that if he has a problem with Jamaat-e-Islami, he should go to India. When threatening the women of his house, they said that the women were ‘ganeemat’ (spoils of war). They forcefully took away at least 6 cows. When they were threatening and looting, they said they will not leave even one Hindu alive. We are scared. Our lives are in danger. We don’t know if we will survive. We don’t know whether we should stay here or run away. Nobody is giving us any help. I am requesting you to help us. Please save us”, he said further. He said that they were also threatened to not talk about their persecution by the mob of 20.
He told us that most Hindus were hiding in their homes or wherever they had fled after the violence. They were not venturing out because they would certainly be attacked after being identified as Hindus.
I asked him about the help, if any, being extended by the local Hindus organisations of the area in which he resides. I was told that the Puja committee heads and other leaders of Hindu organisations also had to flee or remain in hiding because of the targeted violence. I was later told that just as the fall of Sheikh Hasina became apparent, Jamaat-e-Islami started preparing a hitlist of Hindu leaders, organisations, businesses and houses to target.
I then asked why the police were not protecting the Hindus. “All the police officers have abandoned their posts. There are no police officers anywhere in Bangladesh. They were being targeted by Jamaat people and many of them were killed, so they have abandoned their posts. With all the police gone, the mobs are freely targeting Hindus”, he said. He said they could call the Army but the Hindus were scared. First, those living in the outskirts and not in proper cities were too far away for the army to reach on time. Second, a large swath of the army itself is sympathetic to the Jamaat and therefore, nobody was sure if they would help the Hindus or persecute them further.
A local Awami League Hindu politician also said that the Army and the Police were nowhere to be found and they had no protection. His only plea was for India to accept the Bangladeshi Hindus – so those who want to seek refuge are able to do so.
A Hindu Puja committee chairperson said that Hindus in his area were living in terror. “We hardly have food to eat. Who do we go to? Who do we ask for help? There is nobody there for us”, he said. He said a 650 year old ancient Temple was destroyed by the Jihadi mob – it now lies in ruins. “Every Hindu Sampradaya is now living in terror after these attacks. I am not being able to leave my village. They are attacking Hindus houses in my locality as well”. I asked him for a picture of the temple which lay in ruins – he said that if he leaves the house he will be lynched. He could send it to me later if he survives the onslaught.
The temple, before it was burnt to rubble, looked like this.
Another local Hindus who detailed his ordeal to me said that his own house along with the house of his neighour had been burnt down by the Islamist mob. He too, like some other Hindus, said that several cows were stolen from the stable of his neighbour and some were burnt.
It is pertinent to note that there there was another case which was reported by local Bangladeshi Hindus where cows were found burnt during the violence.
Miscreants set fire to the house of Amiya Singh, a resident of Quisharpar, Barigaon village of Comilla district, Bangladesh at 1 am. Their cattle shed was completely gutted in the fire and two cows were burnt to death.07-08-2024#SaveBangladeshiHindus #AllEyesOnBangladeshiHindus pic.twitter.com/MFpTIQ7Q1O
— Tinni Banik (@tinni_bani37545) August 8, 2024
Jihadis harbour special kind of disdain for the cow because Hindus revere the animal as their mother. The targeting of the cow, specifically, has religious undertones which is hard to miss.
“There is no ‘bahini’ to give us any protection. There are a lot of numbers that we have but everyone is scared for their lives. Even if they come, they will take so long that we will be dead by then. My uncle has a medicine shop and his shop has completely been looted and destroyed. All Hindu shops are specifically being targeted. Please stand with us. We want to survive. We want to live. Our request is please save us. Give us refuge. The border security will not let us enter India but please give us refuge. Save the Hindus from Bangladesh”, he said.
He further said if there are any army personnel around while a Hindu is being targeted, they would first outright deny that the Hindu person was being persecuted. They would look at the Hindu and say that they were exaggerating and absolutely nothing as such had happened to them. They would then abuse them using religiously charged slurs as well. “The army would say that nothing has happened to you and you are wasting our time by complaining. They call us Kafirs constantly. They say that our property is their ‘ganeemat’ and that our women are ‘jayaz'”, he said. He further said that many Islamists from the Jamaat and other average Muslims are telling Hindus that they might be saved if they chant, “La Ilaha Illallah Muhammad Rasulullah. We have also been told that if we can’t protect ourselves, we should leave for India”.
‘Hospitals refusing to treat Hindu patients’
According to the local Hindu organisation leader I spoke to, several hospitals in Bangladesh which are refusing to treat Hindu patients after they have been violently and some grievously attacked by Muslim mobs. “These hospitals are refusing treatment to Hindu victims. If you are Hindu, we won’t treat you. They say that it is their right to refuse service to Hindus. There are many who have died because they were attacked grievously and when they reached the hospital, they were not given treatment”, he said.
When the violence had just started, the same local Hindu leader had said that Jamaat-e-Islami men had made hit lists of Hindus, their establishments and organisations. He had also said that Muslim mobs were roaming the streets with weapons to ensure that they could attack any Hindu they see. Hindus were, therefore, trapped in their homes because of the mobs on the streets. “Everyone you have spoken to has suffered loss. Either their homes have been burnt, or they have lost someone they know. This country will finish us. We will not be left. In the next few years, no Hindu will be left in this country after what is happening now”, he said.
“This is our land. We were born here. This is our janmabhoomi. Why would we want to leave? But we are being called Kafirs. They are killing us and hanging us on the streets. Our women are being raped. Our brothers are being attacked. How do we stay here? Doctors are refusing to treat us. Nobody wants to leave, but what do we do? Where do we go?”, he narrates, with a painful concoction of hurt and anger in his voice. He knew personally of Hindus who had been denied treatment in the Sherpur district of Bangladesh. “We are not obligated to treat Hindus, I was told, when I spoke to the hospital in the Sherpur district. I guarantee you, after Mohammad Yunus takes oath, you will soon here that the killings have increased. This will not stop”.
According to local Hindus, at least 30 women have been raped since the violence started. This is an extremely conservative estimate because these are only the cases they have been able to trace. The rapes that they have been able to trace have been from Pirojpur district Rayer Khati region, Brahman Kathi region, Baju Khati region, Comilla District Boroigao, Dinajpur, Jalkhada, Naokhali, Pabna and a few others. The Bangladesh local media has reported that over 232 people have been killed after the ouster of Sheikh Hasina. How many of them are Hindus, is anyone’s guess. This too, is an extremely conservative number according to Hindu locals. As many as 29 Awami League leaders have been murdered after the ouster of Sheikh Hasina. The locals who spoke to me have also said that conservatively, over 50 Hindus have died because they were refused treatment by hospitals owing to their religious identity.
There are several testimonies of women talking about their persecution.
a woman was heard saying, “They came and looted our house. They took away our money, gold and whatever valuable that was left with us. They also abducted my 14-year-old boy.”“I don’t even know their identity. They vandalised our house and took everything away. They also beat us severely,” she narrated while breaking down in tears.
Another Hindu woman narrated how her family was targeted overnight by Islamist mobs. She stated that her 15-year-old brother was assaulted at knifepoint. They also stole stole 3 lakh from the family.
“Look how they have vandalised our houses…Is this the work of a human? They are claiming that this is an independent country now. See what they have done to my underage brother,” she narrated the ordeal.
“It’s a curse to be a Sanatani in Bangladesh. I, as a student, am asking why my house is being targeted,” the Hindu woman continued. She pointed out that 3-4 other Hindu houses were attacked in a similar fashion.
“Who will give us justice? Who is there to protect us Hindus? Today, they are attacking me. Tomorrow, they will attack you. If we do not stand up to it now, then, we will not be able to survive tomorrow.”
Another woman said that Muslims had threatened her and her family to flee Bangladesh overnight.
Terrorist Riyaz Molla has threatened to kill the Hindu family if they do not flee the country overnight ‼️ Brutal robbery at Hindu house in Patuakhali!#SaveBangladeshiHindus #AllEyesOnBangladeshiHindus #HinduGenocideInBangladesh #HindusAreNotSafeInBangladeh pic.twitter.com/aZ2s2Ise5j
— Voice of Bangladeshi Hindus 🇧🇩 (@VoiceofHindu71) August 8, 2024
Another testimony claimed that 6 Madrasa students took responsibility for guarding the house of a Hindu and on that pretext, gang-raped a young Hindu girl.
The locals told me that one of the calls to action by the Jihadi mobs was that all those police officers and government employees who wear a ‘red thread’ need to be burnt alive. A red thread is a religious symbol is worn around the wrist by Hindus. “This chant was being given since the first week of July, what is happening now is only an implementation of their plan”, he said.
“Most of these students who spearheaded this protest are related to Jamaat and Shibir. This protest was to ensure they take over power. It had very little to do with quotas”, I was told by multiple Hindus. “They never wanted a democratic country. They wanted an Islamic nation. One of their slogans during the protest was ‘Hare Krishna Hare Ram, Sheikh Haseenar Baaper Naam’ (Hare Krishna Hare Raam is Sheikh Hasina’s father’s name). Why would they say this if it was not anti-Hindu?”.
Despite the mounting evidence, the media has attempted to summarily deny the persecution of Hindus. The New York Times downplayed the ongoing genocide by calling it ‘revenge attacks’ against Hindus.
And this is just an example of the whitewashing of a genocide. There are several other instances where the media took it upon themselves to shield the Jamaat and throw the Hindus under the bus. They simply dismissed the ongoing genocide as attacks against Awami League supporters.
The Bangladeshi Hindu fears that the Mohammad Yunus government is going to spell doom for the Hindu minority of the Islamic nation is not completely misplaced. On Thursday, 8th August, Prof Muhammad Yunus assumed the office of Bangladesh forming the interim government.
Notably, the newly formed interim government consists of 17 members including Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed; Brigadier General (retd) M Sakhawat Hossain, the former election commissioner of Bangladesh; Dr. Md Nazrul Islam, a law professor; Adilur Rahman Khan, a human rights activist; AF Hassan Ariff, a Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh; Syeda Rizwana Hasan, the Chief Executive of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association among others.
Who is Dr AFM Khalid Hossain?
However, one of the shocking names that have been included in the list of interim ministers is that of Islamist Abul Fayez Muhammad Khalid Hossain, popularly known as Dr AFM Khalid Hossain. Hossain has been the vice president of Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh and is currently associated with the Bangladeshi Deobandi Islamic organization. The Hefazat-e-Islami is a hardline Islamist organization, whose members have been accused of persecuting Hindus in the past.
As per the local reports, Dr AFM Khalid Hossain is a Bangladeshi Deobandi Islamic scholar and an international Islamic speaker. He along with several other leaders of Hefazat-e-Islam has a history of influencing the Muslims against the Sheikh Hasina-led government and its ties with India.
He is a former vice-president of Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh, an editor of the periodical At-Tawheed, and assistant editor of Balagh al-Sharq. He served as the professor and chairman of the Department of Islamic History and Culture at Omargani MES College, as well as the central president of the Islami Chhatra Samaj, the Nizam-e-Islam Party’s student branch.
Hefazat-e-Islam was founded in Chittagong in January 2010 by Islamist Ahmad Shafi aiming to ‘safeguard’ Islam from claimed anti-Islamic initiatives. The Islamist group also aimed at abolishing secularism and propagating hard-core Islamic beliefs.
In March 2021 when PM Modi was visiting Bangladesh, massive protests were organized and managed by Hefazat-e-Islam, leading to violence and chaos across the country. Chittagong and Brahmanbaria, in the country’s east, suffered damage to government offices and property. The violence continued even after Modi’s departure when a train and several Hindu temples were attacked in Brahmanbaria. Hefazat-e-Islamist members chanted ‘action, action, direct action’ in an ominous development. It is pertinent to mention that Jinnah’s call for ‘Direct Action’ led to the genocide of Bengali Hindus in 1946.
The violent protests, which claimed the lives of many Hindus, were viewed as a danger not just to the government’s legitimacy, but also to bilateral relations with India. The incident resulted in the arrest of hundreds of members and supporters of Hefazat-e-Islam.
It is important to note that several leaders associated with Hafazat-e-Islam are at present also spreading hatred against the Hindus amid the ongoing Bangladesh political crisis. Even during the ongoing violence, Islamists from this group incited violence against Hindus.
Pertinently, even during the ongoing violence against Hindus, the Jihadi mobs have called Hindus the “Dalals of India” and have asked them to “go to India”. With the interim government itself harbouring such animosity towards Hindus and India (of whom they are viewed as agents), the fear of Bangladeshi Hindus that they are now essentially orphans and the genocide would only get worse under the current dispensation, is not misplaced.
Prime Minister Modi on the 8th of August took to X to call specifically for the protection of Hindus.
On the 9th of August, Home Minister Amit Shah posted about the Modi govt forming a committee to monitor the ongoing situation along the India- Bangladesh border. The committee would also hold discussions to ensure the safety and security of Indian nationals, Hindus, and other minority communities living in Bangladesh.
While the Indian government is setting up a committee to monitor the situation at the borders, news emerged that 300 Hindus had travelled to the Indian border, hoping to get refuge in India.
West Bengal: Hindus in Bangladesh are attempting to seek refuge in India amid the turmoil. About 300 Bangladeshis gathered at a border point near India's Jalpaiguri district pic.twitter.com/IHFe2vu3UT
— IANS (@ians_india) August 9, 2024
With no political decision yet on the plight of Hindus, it is expected that BSF would not allow these Hindus to enter India.
As the Hindus are being massacred and India hasn’t decided yet about whether they would be accepting refugees, there are Islamic “scholars” who are celebrating the genocide of Hindus.
Abu Najm Fernando bin al-Iskandar who lives in the United States claims to be a PhD student specialising in “Islamic studies” and defines himself as an “indigenous Muslim.”
After the resignation of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the commencement of the anti-Hindu violence, he tweeted his excitement over the devastating developments, advocating for the complete annihilation of Hindus from the country. In his own words, the fact that three of the four schools of jurisprudence for ‘Ahl as-Sunnah’ (traditions and practices of Prophet Muhammad that constitute a model for Muslims to follow) hold that Hindus should only have two options, embrace Islam or die, provides him with “great solace.”
He added, “Hindus should be grateful they’re dealing with Hanafis and not Malikis, Shafi’ees, or Hanbalis,” he mocked while taking the names of Sunni Islamic schools of thought, insinuating that they are far more violent and hostile towards non-Muslims and would have treated vulnerable Hindus in Bangladesh with greater brutality.
He quoted Islamic law from the Hanbali school of jurisprudence, the predominant Sunni school in Saudi Arabia and Qatar which stated, “Thus, due to this, distinguishing themselves from the Muslims in their hair is required of them (i.e., non-Muslims under a covenant of protection) by shaving the front part of their heads and shearing their hair while not parting it due the fact that the Prophet Muhammad parted his hair,” to demonstrate how infidels should be met with humiliating treatment as they are inferior to Muslims.
He also showed his ‘generosity’ by assuring that he has no problem with Hindus who, while residing in Muslim nations, accept their subservient position, and abandon their faith which he called “shirk” (idolatry, polytheism and association with Allah) and live per Islamic laws and regulations. He further hoped that “Bangladesh gets cleaned of Hindu influence and meddling,” while referring to the attacks on Bangladeshi minorities as “Hindu propaganda.”
Through the past 4 days, the Bangladeshi Hindus have not particularly asked for much. All they have really asked is to be saved. Saved from the barbarians. Saved from the animals. From the savages who are committing their genocide and destroying their temples. While they get massacred, they are trying to survive and shield their faith from the mobs.
In protection of Dharma #Bangladesh pic.twitter.com/Q3SPBXHJGS
— Nupur J Sharma (@UnSubtleDesi) August 9, 2024
This video perhaps epitomises the plight of Hindus. We would be remiss to not make parallels to the times when Hindus buried their Gods to protect them from the invading barbarians so future generations could rescue the faith – if they survived.
Hindus are under attack. Serious, serious attack. Might I add, it is an ongoing genocide. A genocide is not defined by numbers but by the intent to wipe out a people owing to their identity. Hindus have never been tolerated by Islamic societies. Rape, torture, persecution, beheadings, and the denial of basic fundamental rights have been the order of the day. Bangladeshi Hindus have been regularly attacked, but this time, the nature of violence is far more institutionalized, since the Jamaat is now running the country (and we use that term loosely).
Every Hindu I spoke to told me they fear the worst. They told me that if not today, in a couple of years they will be wiped out because Bangladesh is now on its path to becoming Taliban-esque. They fear that Yunus would be terrible for Hindus since he is in bed with the Jamaat.
I have refrained from calling on the Indian government to do something immediately because I know that is not how nations can function. We can’t exactly take the military and waltz into Bangladesh. But there has to be something we can do. Since 2019, my only criticism of CAA was that it had a pesky cut-off date. I would hope that the Government of India would simply say that CAA has no cut-off date anymore and that Bharat, the natural home for Hindus, will accept all its children when they need to come back – when the world seems too cruel. Hindus need a right to return.
Hindus need to know that their mother’s lap is waiting for her children. Will the government do it? I don’t know. Honestly, I doubt it. It took us 3 years to notify CAA after bloody anti-Hindu riots – violence direction against Hindus based on utter, damn lies. Do I hope they do it? Yes. I do. I pray they do.
Bangladesh Hindus need to be rescued. They need to be helped. They are being massacred and they need us. We can’t open the borders because it would be a repeat of 1947. God knows we don’t need more Bangladeshi Muslims in this country. God knows we don’t need more Jihadis. But the Hindus need us. Desperately. I don’t have answers. But I know I voted for a government that I hope would have the answers. If I had all the answers I would be running the government.
All I do know is that Bangladeshi Hindus needs us. All I do know is that we cannot claim to stand for Hindus, believe in Hindutva, and be worthy of the sacrifices of our ancestors if we don’t save our fellow Hindus. Rescuing them is our generational responsibility. It is our Dharma. And those who step back from their Dharma are not only doomed but have to suffer the burden of damnation from those who repose their faith in us today. The Nehru-Liaquat pact has soaked this land with the blood of Hindus. It is time to make things right.
If we don’t. If we can’t. We will never be forgiven. The burden of knowing that we watched as our brothers and sisters got massacred will never leave us. The Gods are watching. Our ancestors are watching. They are waiting for us to be worthy. Will we rise to the occasion? I don’t know. I pray we do.
