Analysis, Minority Rights, Opinion

Persecution against Dissenters and Minorities in Bangladesh

Robi Das

Yunus regime is persecuting dissenters and minorities in Bangladesh. Prominent human rights activists and journalists are either in prison in baseless cases or silent due to baseless cases filed against them. We need to fight for those whose rights are violated in Bangladesh.

The rate of persecution against dissenters and minorities has increased in Bangladesh since August 5 2024. Between 5 and 8 August, it was the Islamic terrorists and fundamentalists with the support of right-wing political forces, e.g. Jamat-e-Islami, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Hefazat-e-Islam etc., who targeted dissenters and minorities all over Bangladesh. After August 8, the interim government also joined the band and weaponized law enforcing agencies and judiciary to arrest more than a hundred thousand dissenters in thousands of baseless cases citing murder, torture, blasphemy and sedition charges. The current Yunus government’s primary targets are authors, filmmakers, journalists, lawyers, activists, secularists, human rights defenders and pro-liberation people. These people have dissented from the ideology of the anti-liberation and pro-Islamist right-wing forces, which the Yunus government is promoting now.   The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council is one of the few human rights organizations that raised the red flag regarding the persecution of religious and ethnic minorities in the name of attacking political opponents.

Advocate Rana Das Gupta, a human rights defender and General Secretary of the organization, stated in a press release dated September 19, 2024, that nearly 2010 violent incidents took place targeting religious and ethnic minorities between August 4 and August 20. However, the Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities (HRCBM) reported that the real numbers are much higher and remain unreported (HRCBM, 2024). The government denied these numbers, and without proper investigation, they claim these reports are baseless. After the first report, Das Gupta found that he was named as accused in three (3) cases on baseless murder charges.  Advocate Gupta was not the only one. Chinmoy Krishna Das, a monk of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), also raised his voice against the minority persecution. He demanded the immediate establishment of the Minority Rights Commission, the Ministry for Minority Affairs, the enactment of the Protection of Minority Act, etc. He was critical of the government’s denial of ongoing…

Analysis, Minority Rights, Opinion

Political vs. Religious Motives: Uncovering the Truth Behind Targeted Violence

Robi Das

Current Yunus government is continuously denying the claims of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC) saying that the killings reported by the organisation are political in nature. The government did not find that those persons were killed due to their religious identity. However, while making this claim the government ignored the victim perspective, and the motive behind selecting the victim.

The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC), a civil society organisation representing religious and ethnic minorities in Bangladesh, claimed in a press conference on 30 January 2025 that between 21 August and 31 December, 174 incidents of violence against religious minorities occurred in the country. Among these incidents, the organisation reported 23 killings. Soon after, the current Yunus government responded, alleging that BHBCUC was spreading rumours and misinformation, asserting that none of these individuals were killed because of their religious identity but rather due to political rivalry, land disputes, or as victims of general crimes. Sadly, of all possible approaches, that was the government’s first response to the BHBCUC report, without even looking into the claims or investigating them. Such sweeping claims from the current government are not new as we have witnessed numerous times since they took power in August last year. It appears that the government has adopted a ‘deny and discredit first’ policy against any claims

of human rights violations. This is very concerning. Previously, in December, the current Press Secretary (better termed as ‘spokesperson’) made the same assertion as above. Worryingly, such government responses are enabling certain commentators, such as 2 Cents Podcasts, to spread hatred against the Hindu populace of Bangladesh by labelling them as Indian sympathisers or agents. However, this article is not about any specific kinds of activism but rather about the broader question: How does a crime become classified as a political crime or a religion-based crime? The Yunus government has consistently argued, since 8 August 2024, that most crimes committed against religious and ethnic minorities are politically motivated killings—as if killing someone for political reasons is somehow justifiable. Political crimes and crimes committed against individuals due to their religious identity are indeed distinct in their motivations and objectives, though they often overlap. When comparing a person targeted for their political beliefs to one targeted for their religious beliefs, the key…

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