India is “deeply disturbed” by attacks on Hindus in Muslim-majority Bangladesh after the ouster of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina last month, Veena Sikri, New Delhi’s former high commissioner to Bangladesh, has told RT.
Hasina resigned on August 5 following months of student-led protests over discriminatory job quotas, which resulted in the deaths of 400 people. She has been residing in India since then. After she resigned, allegations of atrocities against Hindus, which make up about 9% of the population, have been reported – mainly by Indian media.
Sikri has alleged that Hindus in Bangladesh have come under “economic” attacks, as their sources of livelihood are being stripped amid the violence. Her remarks follow reports that 49 Hindu teachers were forced to resign from their jobs last week, although 19 of them were later reinstated, according to the Daily Star newspaper.
Speaking to RT, the former ambassador claimed that atrocities against the Hindu minority are dismissed by the international media as “India’s propaganda.” This is “completely wrong,” she said, suggesting that there should be a judicial inquiry into the alleged attacks.
Meanwhile, the Indian government set up a special committee last month to monitor the alleged atrocities against Hindus and incidents at the border. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also expressed concern about the community’s safety. During a recent phone call with US President Joe Biden, Modi discussed the need to ensure the safety and security of Hindus in Bangladesh. However, Washington’s readout of the conversation did not mention Bangladesh at all.
After Hasina’s ouster, Nobel Peace Prize-winner Muhammad Yunus was chosen to lead an interim government that was sworn in on August 8. Yunus, who hosted leaders from the Hindu community last week, stressed that there cannot be any “divisions” among the people in Bangladesh and that the interim government was determined to protect the rights of every citizen.
India’s ties with Bangladesh have been strained since the regime change in Dhaka. The political parties in opposition to Hasina’s Awami League have been pressing the interim government to formally ask New Delhi to extradite Hasina, against whom several cases, including allegations of murder and kidnapping, had been filed in the country’s courts.