Editor’s note: Three days after Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled and resigned from her post, Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus Aug. 6 took oath as the leader of the country’s interim government. Yunus, who was supported by student demonstrators, has vowed to return the country to peace.
By Avatans Kumar/India Currents
As people in Bangladesh cleaned up the mess after weeks of student protests and rioting, a dismembered head of Maa Durga’s moorti lay on the ground among the pile of rubble. The students of Bangladesh were protesting against their government. Their anti-government protests soon turned into a full-fledged campaign against Hindus and other religious minorities. The rioters destroyed many Hindu homes, damaged and looted businesses, and destroyed and desecrated places of worship.
Hindus constitute roughly 8% of Bangladesh’s 170 million people and have historically supported ousted PM Hasina’s Awami League party, which identifies as largely secular.
According to a Reuters report, “at least 52 of the country’s 64 counties have been impacted by communal violence” that erupted after Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to leave the country after winning the election for another five-year term in office earlier this year.
Ransacked Hindu Temples
According to a post on X, the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council estimates the total number of incidents of attacks on the minority communities of Bangladesh to 205 in the aftermath of Hasina fleeing the country on Aug. 5. Rioters have killed over 230 people during the same period, including two Hindu leaders affiliated with the deposed PM’s party.
Several social media posts have captured and reported the mayhem on the streets of Bangladesh. A post on X depicts a ransacked Hindu mandir in Bharat Kandi. Another post by Yudhistir Govinda Das, a spokesperson for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), shared information about the ISKCON temple in Meherpur being “burnt, including with deities of Lord Jagannath, Baladev, and Subhadra Devi.”
Rioters attacked Bangladeshi Hindu folk artist Rahul Ananda’s house in Dhaka. They also destroyed over 3,000 musical instruments. Ananda’s family had to flee to a safe, undisclosed location.
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