POBNEWS24, Dhaka, July 31, 2022 : Minorities, including Hindus, in Bangladesh have further decreased. This is what the preliminary report of this year’s census and household census says.
Major political party BNP blamed the ruling Awami League for this.
In fact, who is responsible for it?
According to preliminary reports, Hindus are now 7.95 percent of the total population in the country. In the 2011 census, Hindus were 8.54 percent, Buddhists were 0.61 percent and it was 0.62 percent in the previous census.
Compared to the 2011 census, the Hindu population in this census has decreased by 0. 59%.
According to this census, 91.04 percent of the total population of the country is Muslim. In the previous census it was 90.39 percent. Muslim population has increased. In this year’s census, the total population of the country is 16 crore 51 lakh 58 thousand 616 people.
According to the census, Hindus accounted for 22 percent of the total population in 1951, 18.6 percent in 1961, 13.5 percent in 1974, 12.1 percent in 1981, 10.5 percent in 1991, 9.2 percent in 2001 and 8.54 per cent in 2011.
Kajal Debnath, presidium member of the Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council said, “If we take the 1974 census as a basis, then Hindus accounted for more than 13 percent of the total population. And now it has been seven percent. So five percent more Hindus are missing. It is Unfortunate”.
Rana Dasgupta, general secretary of the same organisation, said, “If this continues, Hindus will no longer exist in Bangladesh. Bangladesh will turn into Afghanistan.”
Why they are decreasing. In this regard, Kajal Debnath said, “Not all the news is published in the newspapers. As per my estimate, there are at least 8-10 attacks are taking place on Hindus in Bangladesh every day. They are being evicted and they are leaving this country. If you go to a village where Hindus had 100 houses before, now there are 10 houses there. Hindus are being systematically attacked on the pretext of insulting religion. But police is taking no step in any incident. I will blame the state for this. Now the pro-liberation forces are in the government, they are also not taking any measure”.
Rana Dasgupta said, “In the last 10 years, there have been more than 10,000 attacks on Hindus. The present government constituted a judicial inquiry commission to look into the persecution of minorities in 2001 and thereafter. We have submitted more than 5,000 incidents of attacks and torture with evidence. But the report of that commission never saw the light of day”.
What the research says, Dhaka University Economics Department Professor and Researcher Dr. Abul Barakat said, “My research showed that 500 Hindus are leaving the country every day. That was the average for the last 30 years. The trend of them leaving the country is still continuing. We don’t know where they are going. The fact that they are decreasing in proportion to the population growth is also proven in the latest census”.
He also said, “They are becoming homeless, landless due to law and order problem and torture. They are being evicted from land. The attacks on them have never stopped. What you are seeing now is that the intensity of attacks and torture has increased, because no action has been taken”.
Dr. Abul Barakat said, “I saw in the Narail incident, father came under attack along with the house? If you put yourself in the place of that Hindu, then you will understand his pain. You will understand why Hindus leave the country”.
Political debate
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said, “Hindus have decreased in Bangladesh due to capture of their wealth. And this has been done by the people belonging to he current ruling party Awami League”.
BNP organizing secretary Syed Imran Saleh Prince said, “Hindus are migrating due to persecution by the Awami League and the government. Rulig party men are taking possession of their houses and properties. Awami League considers Hindus as their sole property. Awami League only uses them for election purposes”.
Hindus have decreased in all censuses after independence. It has also decreased during BNP period. In response to this, he said, ther number reduced during BNP tenure, it is not correct information”. When reminded of the decline in 2001, he said, “Before that, Awami League was in power. The events of that time have been reflected in that census.”
In response to this, Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbub ul Alam Hanif said, “BNP has become a corrupt political party. They are telling shameless lies. Where and when has Awami League occupied the homes of Hindus? The Hindu community has always suffered torture at the hands of BNP-Jamaat men during their tenure. In 2001, 13-year-old Purnima was gang-raped by BNP terrorists in front of her parents for voting in favour of boat symbol.
“At the same time, two thousand Hindu women were raped by BNP terrorists in Hindu-dominated Lalmohan. From 2001 to 2006, they brutally tortured Hindus. There is no information available to us about them leaving the country. Still, if anyone has left the country, it is because of torture on them during the tenure of BNP”.
But the current census is of the last 10 years. This time, the Awami League is in power. Then why the number reduced? In response to this question, the ruling party leader said, “You have to keep in mind that the population growth among Muslims and the population growth among Hindus are not same.
“Musleim religious leaders encourage muslims to have more children. Mufti Ibrahim has 11 children. He wants to have more children. A section of Muslims is still not conscious. So their birth rate is high, while the birth rate is low among hindus because of consciousness among them. So it cannot be said that their number have decreased because they left the country”.
Meanwhile, Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Parishad has once again demanded enacting the Minority Protection Act and forming the Minority Commission. Kajal Debnath said, “Before the 2018 elections, Awami League’s manifesto was supposed to introduce the security law.”
Rana Dasgupta said, “If there is a law and a commission, minorities will at least have a place to complain, demand investigation and give information. They will be able to say, but now they can’t do that.”
But Law Minister Anisul Haque had earlier said, “We are not thinking about the Minority Protection Act. We are working on the Witness Protection Act”.
End?
