Author:
Publication: The Public Affair
Magazine
Date: January 30, 2002
URL: http://www.indiareacts.com/archivedebates/nat2.asp?recno=285
India must act against Bangladeshi
pogrom against Hindus.
31 December 2001: The message of
the Indian military build-up against Pakistani terrorism must be communicated
to Bangladesh if it has not already understood its significance.
Since Khaleeda Zia came to power
on 1 October 2001 in Bangladesh, her fundamentalist political allies have
launched a terror campaign against Hindus and other minorities. Activists
of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh (JeIB) and Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ) have murdered
Hindus, raped their women, poisoned their ponds, destroyed their temples,
homes and standing crops, demanded Jaziya, and warned them to convert to
Islam or flee Bangladesh.
The Zia government is playing down
these atrocities but the Bangladesh Supreme Court has ordered it to secure
the minorities. Bangladesh newspapers and independent human-right groups
have exposed the terror campaign against the Hindus. There is nothing to
suggest that the exposure has reduced the terror campaign.
India must act.
More than 4 million Hindus have
been displaced since the pogrom began. A parliamentary report says that
266 Hindus were murdered and 213 women raped in the first 25 days after
Zia became prime minister. Human right activists say that the report is
fixed.
On 2 October, nearly 200 women were
raped in Annada Prashad of Bhola district. One of the victims was eight
years old, another a middle-aged amputee. The third victim was 70 years
old. A day later, 22 women were raped throughout the night and forced to
walk naked in public in Kachipara village of Patuakhali district.
Atrocities have continued ever since
in all the 64 districts of Bangladesh. But the most affected districts
are Borisal, Bagerhat, Comilla, Chittagong, Bogra, Sathkheera, Chhattagram,
Sirajgunj, Pabna, Rajsahee, Patuakhali, Nator, Bhola, Najirpur, Kishoregunj
and Jhinaidaha. In nine of them, 33 temples have been damaged. Many Hindu
villagers could not celebrate Durga Puja. In places, Puja pandals were
vandalised.
Destroyed home and crops have forced
Hindus to become refugees. They have taken shelter in local schools. Richer
Hindus have been threatened by JeIB and IOJ goons with death if they do
not undersell their ancestral properties. In Daulatkhan sub-district of
Bhola, minorities have pasted white papers on their windows saying, "Do
whatever you wish, we have lost the language of protest."
Nearly, 30,000 Bangladeshi Hindus
have fled to South Dinajpur, Malda and North 24 Parganas in West Bengal
and Belonia and Sabroom districts of Tripura. Trinamool Congress and Congress
MPs from West Bengal have attacked the terror campaign against Hindus in
Parliament. RSS chief K.Sudershan has demanded that India cut off Farrakka
waters in protest. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has threatened a nationwide
agitation.
But the Indian government has so
far limited itself to lodging diplomatic protests.
Why has this anti-Hindu campaign
started?
One reason is that Hindus and other
minorities are perceived to be supporters of the pro-India Awami League
of Sheikh Hasina Wajid who lost the elections to Zia. The Awami League
has done more to spread this impression than the minority voters themselves.
When Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party won the elections, her fundamentalist
allies unleashed violence against the Hindus for voting for Sheikh Hasina.
The second reason is that Bangladesh
is becoming overcrowded. It has the highest population density in the world.
Its growth rate is very high. Land sharks protected by JeIB and IOJ activists
are trying to take over Hindu properties at throwaway prices by threatening
them.
Thirdly, JeIB and IOJ seek to establish
a rigid Islamic state in Bangladesh. JeIB supported the genocidal Pakistan
army during the Bangladesh war of independence. The Hindu population in
Bangladesh has reduced from 35 per cent to 10 per cent and even this is
unacceptable to JeIB and IOJ. Hindus have been purged from authoritative
positions in government institutions such as universities and the Bangladesh
army.
And JeIB was the moving force behind
anti-Hindu violence in 1990, 1991, 1992 (following the Babri Masjid demolition)
and 1996. Now it is combining its extremism with state power to terrorise
Hindus.
Dhiman Chowdhury who heads the Human
Rights Congress for Bangladeshi Minorities says that "These attacks are
designed to displace minorities and evict them out of Bangladesh. It is
a systematic and planned annihilation."
There is a fourth reason. Since
its independence from Pakistan in 1971, Saudi money has poured into Bangladesh
fuelling fundamentalism. JeIB and IOJ are beneficiaries of this. Also,
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence has begun using Bangladesh as a
staging ground for attacking India from the east. There are reports that
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen terrorists banned by the US for links to the Al-Qaeda
are operating in forests near the Bangladesh-Burma border against India.
The Pakistani-Bangladeshi terrorist
connection has increased after the Taliban's rout in Afghanistan. There
are reports that some Al-Qaeda terrorists have relocated to Bangladesh
under the protection of JeIB and Bangladesh's homegrown terrorist group
Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJaI). The Lahore, Muridke-based Markaz-ul-Dawa-wal-Irshad
that sponsors Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists is also growing active in Bangladesh.
Markaz, HuJaI, JeIB, IOJ and the other extremist and terrorist groups are
targeting Bangladeshi Hindus as a forerunner of jihad against India.
What must India do?
India has two issues to address.
One is the anti-Hindu pogrom. The second is growing anti-India extremism
aided by Pakistani terrorist groups. Bangladesh cannot claim that what
it does to its Hindu population is its internal matter. If Hindu refugees
flee to India, it becomes an Indian issue. India cannot turn them back.
Bangladesh also cannot claim sovereign
right over the activities of anti-India forces. ULFA's bases in Bangladesh
threaten Indian security. The jihadi broadcast of HuJaI against India (See
Intelligence, "Jihadic Bangla broadcast upsets India," 28 November 2001)
and its fund-raising in West Bengal cannot be shrugged away. The activities
of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and Markaz terrorists raise Indian concerns. It
is after all Pakistani terrorism that has provoked the Indian military
build-up.
So what must India do?
India must launch a diplomatic offensive
against Bangladesh. It can take a leaf from the current campaign against
Pakistan. A message must be sent to Khaleeda Zia that India will protect
its interests in the region through any means and at any cost. Pakistan's
nuclear weapons have not deterred India, why should a military pipsqueak
like Bangladesh get away with murder.
