10th December 2024 – Earlier today, a group of Hindu Canadians staged protests in front of the Bangladeshi Consulate in Toronto. The event was organized to protest against the ongoing atrocities on Bangladeshi Hindus after a regime change took place in Dhaka in August 2024.
Dozens of protesters demanded that the ongoing ethnic violence against Hindus in Bangladesh must be stopped and the Bangladeshi government takes strict action against the perpetrators of the crimes.
Several reports have come out of sectarian violence against Bangladeshi Hindus have been reported. On 6th August 2024, BBC reported that “there is no law and order. And Hindus are being targeted again.”
In a report published in Associated Press (AP), around 30,000 Hindus rallied last month in Chattogram in demonstrated and demanded that the interim government protect them from a wave of attacks and harassment against Hindu leaders. In another report by AP, within a week of the establishment of the new government in August 2024, “there have been at least 200 attacks against Hindus and other religious minorities across 52 districts” in Bangladesh.
After the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina government, ties between India and Bangladesh have also hit the abyss. Bangladeshi Hindus traditionally have had links with Hasina’s Awami League Party, which protected the minorities. These attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh, however, have not just been political.
After the arrest of ISKCON monk Chinmoy Das in Bangladesh, ISKCON Kolkata urged the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to “take note of atrocities on religious minorities in Bangladesh”.
Bangladeshi Hindus constitute about 8% of the total population of 170 million in Bangladesh.
Canadian Hindu Volunteers wrote on X, “The suffering in Bangladesh is not an isolated tragedy; it is a profound human rights crisis that demands global attention”.
