'Anti-India Sentiment Rising in Bangladesh': Outrage Ensues After Lynching of Hindus

Congress MP Imran Masood warns Bangladesh is becoming a hub of anti-India sentiment and condemns attacks on Hindus, as MJ Akbar accuses the interim govt of appeasing extremists amid shocking lynchings.

Congress MP Imran Masood on Friday said that Bangladesh is gradually becoming a hub of anti-India sentiment and called for practical steps to address this situation. Speaking to ANI, Congress MP condemned the attacks on the minority Hindu community in Bangladesh, saying that targeting and persecuting people in the name of religion is very wrong. "The situation in Bangladesh is certainly concerning. Bangladesh is becoming a hub of anti-India sentiment. We should take effective steps... In Bangladesh, people are being identified and persecuted in the name of religion, which is very bad," said Masood.

Interim govt 'abetting hatred of Hindus'

Earlier, former Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar strongly criticised the interim government in Bangladesh, accusing it of abetting "hatred of Hindus as an ideology" through appeasement of extremist forces amid a series of lynchings and attacks on minorities in the country.

Speaking to ANI on the issue of recent incidents of Hindu minorities lynched in Bangladesh, Akbar said Bangladesh is facing a "major crisis of appeasement", where what he described as those are indulging the country's most extreme forces in power. He highlighted a broader governance failure under the current interim administration led by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, alleging that such crimes are being abetted because the establishment is accommodating these elements in order to ensure its own political survival. "Bangladesh is going through a major crisis of appeasement. Appeasement of the most vicious forces in the country. People who believe in the hatred of Hindus as an ideology. They do not understand that hatred is not an ideology. But their crime is abetted by the fact that the establishment there is allowing it to survive. One of the great problems that the country is facing is a that the present interim government has had absolutely no sense of governance," the former MoS said.

Recent Lynchings of Hindu Youths

These statements come after the lynching cases of two Hindu youths were reported from Bangladesh.

Lynching over extortion allegation

Earlier on Wednesday, the Daily Star reported that a Hindu youth identified as Amrit Mondal was lynched at Hosendanga village of Kalimohor union in Rajbari's Pangsha sub-district over an extortion allegation. Police rushed to the spot upon receiving information last night and rescued Samrat in a critical condition.

Mob killing over alleged blasphemy

The murder of Mondal took place days after the mob lynching and burning of the Hindu youth, Dipu Chandra Das, in Bangladesh's Mymensingh district. A worker in a garment factory, Dipu Chandra Das, was beaten to death by a mob over alleged blasphemy charges and had his body hanged and set on fire on December 18. The Daily Star, citing Mymensingh's Additional Superintendent of Police, Abdullah Al Mamun, stated that a factory official had informed Bhaluka police that a group of workers attacked Dipu inside the factory, accusing him of making "derogatory remarks about the Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH)" in a Facebook post. However, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)-14 Company Commander in Mymensingh, Md Samsuzzaman, told The Daily Star that investigators found no evidence suggesting the deceased had posted or written anything on Facebook that could have hurt religious sentiments. (ANI)

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)