Persecuted… Oppressed… Killed…
The Hindu population in Bangladesh has faced persistent persecution, raising serious concerns about their fundamental rights, safety and security.
In 1941, approximately 28% of the population of East Bengal (now Bangladesh) was Hindu. The Hindu population has declined significantly since 1971, the year Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan. 13.5% of the population of Bangladesh was Hindu in 1974, and only approximately 8% of the population of Bangladesh was Hindu in 2022. This decline highlights the ongoing persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh. Why would the Hindu population in Bangladesh decline if it is a country that is tolerant and respects the rights of its minorities?
Hindus in Bangladesh have faced persistent persecution and have been victims of targeted attacks. During the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, the Pakistan Army launched a military operation called “Operation Searchlight”, which led to the Bangladesh genocide in 1971 when millions of Hindus were killed. There have also been countless instances of targeted violence against Hindus following the Bangladesh genocide in 1971. For instance, there was anti-Hindu violence in 1990 when Islamist mobs set fire to Hindu mandirs (temples) in Chittagong and Dhaka and anti-Hindu violence in 2013 that was instigated by Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh’s largest Islamist political party, which opposed Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan.
Hindus in Bangladesh have also suffered from state-sponsored land-grabbing. The so-called Vested Property Act (formerly known as the Enemy Property Act during Pakistani rule), allowed authorities to take over ‘enemy’ land, much of it belonging to Hindus. This led to the expropriation of as much as 2.6 million acres between 1965 and 2006, with devastating effects for an estimated 1.2 million Hindu households.
The international community should be concerned about the risk of Bangladesh following a dangerous path towards state failure, similar to that of Afghanistan and Pakistan, which are countries that have become synonymous with Islamist extremism, militant violence and intolerance. The significant issues in Bangladesh need to be under the microscope in order to prevent the country from following a similar path.
