The Hindus who felt safe in Bangladesh till two weeks ago, are now feeling scared there. Hindus are scared since the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government on August 5. Hindus living there are being killed, temples are being attacked, shops are being looted and they are being threatened.
National Hindu Grand Alliance of Bangladesh claims that since Sheikh Hasina’s resignation, there have been reports of attacks on Hindus and minorities at 278 places in 48 districts. The Alliance has called it an ‘attack on Hindu religion’.
Many people argue that those who are being attacked or killed are either associated with Sheikh Hasina’s party Awami League or have connections with the police. However, three out of every five Hindus killed had nothing to do with politics or the police. Anupam Roy, who lives in Dhaka, says that he knows many such victims, who were far away from politics.
Bangladesh Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Unity Council claims that in the three days between August 5 and 8, 205 cases of attacks on Hindus were reported.
How is the situation in Bangladesh?
Bangladesh has a long history of targeting minorities, especially the Hindu community. It will be remembered that two years ago also anti-Hindu sentiments had flared up in Bangladesh, after which many Hindus were murdered.
Recently, after the resignation of Sheikh Hasina, cases of attacks on Hindus have been reported from hundreds of places. ISKCON Temple and Durga temples have been targeted. Houses and shops of Hindus have been vandalized. The miscreants had also captured a cremation ground in Dinajpur.
Many countries of the world had expressed concern over these attacks on Hindus. On August 8, when Mohammad Yunus took oath as the head of the interim government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated him and also asked him to ensure the safety of Hindus. Not only this, on Independence Day, PM Modi had also mentioned the violence against Hindus from the Red Fort. He had said that amid the unrest in Bangladesh, 140 crore Indians are also worried about the safety of Hindus and other minorities.
Even now, cases of violence against Hindus are coming to light, but they have been being harassed there for decades. Hindu American Foundation claims that between 1964 and 2013, more than one crore Hindus have fled Bangladesh. The foundation says that every year 2.30 lakh Hindus are leaving Bangladesh.
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The condition of Hindus in neighboring countries is worrying
There used to be a sizeable population of Hindus in India’s three neighboring countries – Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, but now their number is decreasing rapidly.
But is it really so? Let us understand this with the help of some statistics. First of all let’s talk about Pakistan. When Pakistan was formed after partition in 1947, it was divided into two parts. First- West Pakistan and second- East Pakistan.
When the census was conducted in Pakistan in 1951, the Muslim population there was 85.8% and the non-Muslim population was 14.2%. At that time the non-Muslim population in West Pakistan was only 3.44%. Whereas, in East Pakistan (today’s Bangladesh) 23.2% of the population was non-Muslims.
When the census was conducted in Pakistan in 1972, Bangladesh had already been formed. At that time the share of non-Muslims in the population of Pakistan was 3.25%. The last census was conducted in Pakistan in 2017. Then the non-Muslim population there was 3.53%. The non-Muslim population includes Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Ahmadiyya Muslims and people of other religions.
At the same time, the population of non-Muslims in Bangladesh has decreased rapidly. In 1951, the non-Muslim population in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) was 23.2%. The last census was conducted here in 2011. It was revealed that the population of non-Muslims in Bangladesh has decreased to 9.4%.
According to Al-Jazeera report, more than 7 lakh Hindus and Sikhs lived in Afghanistan in the 1970s. But now their population there has reduced to less than 7 thousand.
According to the report of the US State Department, only 700 Hindu and Sikh families were left in Afghanistan in 2018. Non-Muslims had returned from there after a civil war-like situation developed there.
This estimate is also from the time when there was no Taliban government. After the Taliban came back to power in August 2021, a large number of Hindus and Sikhs have returned to India from Afghanistan. However, at present more than 99 percent of the population of Afghanistan is Muslim. There, the non-Muslim population is just 0.3%.
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What is the situation of minorities?
Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan… all three are Islamic nations. Pakistan has been an Islamic nation since the beginning. At the same time, Bangladesh was formed as a secular nation in 1971. Bangladesh also became an Islamic country in 1988.
In all these three countries, minorities i.e. non-Muslims have been given many constitutional rights. Non-Muslims have the right to practice their religion and faith. Many non-Muslims have also reached important positions in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
But despite all this, the situation of non-Muslims in these three countries, especially Pakistan and Bangladesh, is worrying.
While presenting the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Parliament in December 2019, Home Minister Amit Shah had said, ‘In 1947, the population of minorities inside Pakistan was 23 percent and in 2011 it decreased to 3.7 percent. The population of minorities in Bangladesh was 22 percent in 1947 and in 2011 it came down to 7.8 percent. Where did these people go? Either he converted, or he was killed, or he was banished, or he came to India.
Many international reports show that non-Muslims are treated badly in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
There are often reports of attacks on Hindu temples and Sikh Gurudwaras in Pakistan. Forced conversions are also common here. Two years ago, there was tremendous violence against Hindus in Bangladesh, in which dozens of people died. Sikh Gurudwaras are also targeted in Afghanistan.
The report of Hindu American Foundation states that on March 25, 2020, there was a terrorist attack on a Gurudwara in Kabul, Afghanistan. 25 people died in this attack. The next day, when the last rites of those killed were being performed, the terrorists attacked.
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Situation is even worse in Pakistan
According to the Religious Freedom Report of the US Government, the situation of religious freedom in Pakistan is getting worse. Target killings, blasphemy cases, forced conversions and spreading hatred against religious minorities have increased.
Kidnapping of girls belonging to religious minorities, raping them, forcibly changing their religion after marrying them, all this is common in Pakistan. In the report of Religious Freedom of America, it has been estimated that every year more than one thousand girls are forcibly converted after marriage.
These incidents of forced marriage and then forced conversion occur most among Hindu and Christian girls. Minor girls belonging to these religions are first kidnapped, raped and later married to a man three-four times older than them and converted.
Not only this, Pakistan Hindu Rights Movement had conducted a survey in 2014. In this survey, it was claimed that at the time of partition, there were 428 temples in Pakistan, but after the 1990s, toy shops, restaurants, hotels, offices, government schools or madrasas were opened in 408 of these temples.
In 2019, the government of Pakistan also admitted that 400 temples were vandalized or occupied. The government had promised that 400 temples would be restored and rights over them would again be given to Hindus.
Also read: Three years of occupation of Kabul… Has the condition of Afghanistan really changed or is Taliban misleading the world?
That’s why India is giving citizenship to the refugees here.
In all three countries, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, minorities are persecuted on religious grounds. Due to this, thousands and lakhs of people have fled from there to India.
The Citizenship Amendment Act has been brought only to give Indian citizenship to the non-Muslims of these three countries who came to India due to religious persecution. According to this law, Indian citizenship will be given to such refugees of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Christian and Parsi religions from these three neighboring countries, who came and settled in India on or before December 31, 2014. Indian citizenship can be given to such refugees even without any valid document or visa.
To acquire Indian citizenship, any foreign person had to spend at least 11 years in India. Except non-Muslims of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, people of all religions of other countries will still have to spend only 11 years. But, under CAA, six minority communities of these three countries will get citizenship in only 6 years instead of 11 years.
However, now all three Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan have turned into crisis zones. Till now Bangladesh was untouched by this. This has increased the concern about the safety of Hindus and other minorities living in neighboring countries.