Tuesday, December 3, 2024
Year : 2, Issue: 14
DW Report: Religious tensions are high in Bangladesh following violence over the arrest of a Hindu religious leader in the southern city of Chittagong.
After Hindu leader Chinmoy Krishna Das was denied bail on charges of sedition on Tuesday for allegedly insulting Bangladesh’s flag during a rally in October, police said hundreds of his supporters clashed with security forces as a van took Das back to jail. A Muslim lawyer, Saiful Islam Alif, was killed during the clash, officials said.
After the incident, some Muslim groups have suggested cracking down on the International Society for Krishna Consciousness(ISKCON), an international Hindu organization.
Although Bangladesh ISKCON said on November 28 that religious leader Das was expelled from the organization in July for disciplinary issues, ICKSON’s Bangladesh president, Satya Ranjan Barai, told the AFP news agency on Friday that Das “defied the order and continued his activities.”
Nevertheless, both Bangladesh ISKCON and Global ISKCON also issued statements condemning the arrest.
Various Islamist political parties, including the far-right Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh, called for a ban on ISKCON in Bangladesh.
On November 26, Hasnat Abdullah, an organizer of the student-led uprising that toppled Hasina, posted on social media calling ISKCON an “extremist” group “trying to implement various treasonous plots to destabilize” Bangladesh.
A lawyer brought the issue of banning ISKCON as a militant organization to the Supreme Court on November 27. A day later, the top court dismissed the petition calling for a ban.
“Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Christians… believe in coexistence, and this harmony will not be broken,” the court ruled.
Shafiqul Alam, press secretary of Bangladesh’s chief adviser, told DW that the interim government “believes in freedom of religion, freedom of association, freedom of assembly for every religious institution. We also believe in ensuring all rights.”
Bangladesh’s minority rights movement
Since the interim government took over, the Indian government has consistently raised concerns about the security of Hindus in Bangladesh.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement expressing concern even after the arrest of Hindu leader Das.
This has led to speculation in Bangladesh over whether India’s Hindu nationalist government is using the minority issue to pressure Bangladesh’s interim government.
Is secularism in Bangladesh under threat?
The current constitution of Bangladesh designates Islam as the state religion while also upholding secularism as a state principle.
However, Bangladesh’s attorney general, Md Asaduzzaman, said during a high court hearing in October that he would support excluding secularism from the constitution.
“In the past, various governments have made promises to us [religious minorities] in their election manifestos. However, after winning the elections, they failed to implement these promises.”
The interim government has said that the election date will be announced after a process of policy reform is completed. One of the reform commissions is tasked with working on whether to rewrite or merely amend the constitution of Bangladesh.
Spokesman Alam said that the commission will submit its report by December 31, and the government is giving it top priority.
