Voice Of America: Tens of thousands of minority Hindus rallied November, 2024 to demand that the interim government in Muslim-majority Bangladesh protect them from a wave of attacks and harassment and drop sedition cases against Hindu community leaders.
About 30,000 Hindus demonstrated at a major intersection in the southeastern city of Chattogram, demanding their rights while police and soldiers guarded the area. Other protests were reported elsewhere in the country.
Hindu groups say thousands of attacks against Hindus have happened since early August, when the secular government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was overthrown and Hasina fled the country following a student-led uprising. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel peace laureate named to lead an interim government after Hasina’s downfall, says those figures have been exaggerated.
Hindus make up about 8% of the country’s nearly 170 million people, while Muslims constitute about 91%.
The influential Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council has said that there have been more than 2,000 attacks on Hindus since August 4, as the interim government has struggled to restore order.
U.N. human rights officials and other rights groups have expressed concern about human rights in the country under Yunus.
Hindus and other minority communities say the interim government hasn’t adequately protected them and that hard-line Islamists have become increasingly influential since Hasina’s ouster.
