Source: The Daily Star
Civil society and minority community leaders at a rally yesterday demanded judicial inquiry into the recent attacks on the Hindu community in Pabna and Lalmonirhat and exemplary punishment for the perpetrators.
Some of them demanded resignation of State Minister for Home Shamsul Hoque Tuku for failing to stop the attacks and blamed the government of failing to bring the culprits to book.
Meanwhile, leaders of Gonotantrik Baam Morcha, an alliance of several left leaning parties, demanded immediate arrest of the attackers.
At a press conference in its office in the capital’s Topkhana Road, they observed that the victims were still living in insecurity and should be provided protection and compensation.
Tuku, a lawmaker from Pabna, was 10 kilometres away from the crime scene in Pabna, former state minister for information Abu Sayeed had alleged on Friday.
The Daily Star took photos of two men, whom the victims identified as the attackers, welcoming Tuku and two lawmakers during their visit to the affected areas in Pabna.
Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad and Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad organised the rally in the capital’s Central Shaheed Minar premises protesting the attacks.
Addressing the rally, Shahriar Kabir, executive president of Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, said at least 400 such attacks took place in Bangladesh in the last one year.
Like in 2001, a communal force is attacking the minorities ahead of the national election, “which is very much alarming”, he said, urging people to defeat the forces just as they did during the Liberation War in 1971.
Eminent cultural activist Kamal Lohani said, “It is a matter of great regret that we have to fight communal forces even 40 years into achieving independence. Our existence will be at stake if we fail to resist the communal forces.”
Eminent educationalist Prof Emeritus Anisuzzaman said the attackers were not enemies of Hindus or any other community but the enemy of Bangladesh and humanity.
“They attempted to destroy the spirit of the Liberation War, stop progress of the country. But we can not go for a compromise with them. We have to fight against this force,” he added.
Liberation War Museum Trustee Ziauddin Tariq Ali and the oikya parishad leaders Hiralal Bala, Subrata Chowdhury, Nirmal Chatterjee, Nirmal Rozario, and Ramen Mandol, among others, spoke.
Prof Neem Chandra Bhowmik chaired the rally, moderated by Tapos Kumar Paul.
Civil society and minority community leaders at a rally yesterday demanded judicial inquiry into the recent attacks on the Hindu community in Pabna and Lalmonirhat and exemplary punishment for the perpetrators.
Some of them demanded resignation of State Minister for Home Shamsul Hoque Tuku for failing to stop the attacks and blamed the government of failing to bring the culprits to book.
Meanwhile, leaders of Gonotantrik Baam Morcha, an alliance of several left leaning parties, demanded immediate arrest of the attackers.
At a press conference in its office in the capital’s Topkhana Road, they observed that the victims were still living in insecurity and should be provided protection and compensation.
Tuku, a lawmaker from Pabna, was 10 kilometres away from the crime scene in Pabna, former state minister for information Abu Sayeed had alleged on Friday.
The Daily Star took photos of two men, whom the victims identified as the attackers, welcoming Tuku and two lawmakers during their visit to the affected areas in Pabna.
Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad and Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad organised the rally in the capital’s Central Shaheed Minar premises protesting the attacks.
Addressing the rally, Shahriar Kabir, executive president of Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, said at least 400 such attacks took place in Bangladesh in the last one year.
Like in 2001, a communal force is attacking the minorities ahead of the national election, “which is very much alarming”, he said, urging people to defeat the forces just as they did during the Liberation War in 1971.
Eminent cultural activist Kamal Lohani said, “It is a matter of great regret that we have to fight communal forces even 40 years into achieving independence. Our existence will be at stake if we fail to resist the communal forces.”
Eminent educationalist Prof Emeritus Anisuzzaman said the attackers were not enemies of Hindus or any other community but the enemy of Bangladesh and humanity.
“They attempted to destroy the spirit of the Liberation War, stop progress of the country. But we can not go for a compromise with them. We have to fight against this force,” he added.
Liberation War Museum Trustee Ziauddin Tariq Ali and the oikya parishad leaders Hiralal Bala, Subrata Chowdhury, Nirmal Chatterjee, Nirmal Rozario, and Ramen Mandol, among others, spoke.
Prof Neem Chandra Bhowmik chaired the rally, moderated by Tapos Kumar Paul.
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