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In the three days of chaos and anarchy that descended upon Bangladesh on August 5 after Sheikh Hasina resigned as the Prime Minister and escaped a mob baying for her blood, there have been over 200 instances of targeted attacks on Hindus. Five Hindus have been killed and there have been several cases of sexual assault. Hindus have historically been a soft target in Muslim-majority Bangladesh but the violence this time is exceptional in scale and the fact that it might be difficult to bring the guilty to book.
For at least three days, there were no law-enforcement personnel in Bangladesh. Police personnel are still not reporting to duty after angry mobs lynched dozens of cops in several districts. This was a window of opportunity for those who wanted to direct their hatred towards Hindus.
"Communal sentiments have always been present in Bangladesh. There are people who look for an opportunity to attack minorities, especially Hindus. Even during the Awami League regime, there were attacks on Hindus. Communalism is a hard fact of Bangladeshi society," Anupam Debashis Roy, Bangladeshi author and activist, tells IndiaToday.
Some might argue that it is difficult to separate the political from the communal in the recent violence, as the targets have been Hasina's Awami League members and police personnel. However, the attacks on temples, targeted looting of shops owned by Hindus and encroaching of their properties show that some of the violence was directed particularly on religious lines.
At least three of the five Hindus who were killed had nothing obvious to do with politics or the police force. Mrinal Kanti Chakraborty, a schoolteacher in Rakhalgachi, was hacked to death, and his wife and daughter grievously injured.
Dhaka-based Anupam Roy says he knows several victims who had nothing to do with politics. He attributes these attacks to "Hindu hatred".
There have been 205 instances of attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh in the three-day period from August 5 to 8, according to a list compiled by the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council.
To be clear, these aren't just 205 places targeted. In dozens of these instances, multiple houses and shops have been targeted, which means there are hundreds of cases of attacks, and not just 205.
In several instances, the prime targets have been Iskcon or Durga temples. In Dinajpur district, a crematorium has been encroached by miscreants.
Most of the targeted attacks have been assault, arson and looting, with encroaching upon properties being one of the primary objectives.
However, one needs to be cautious of fake videos and images being spread on social media. Also, one can't jump to a conclusion as to if any outfit or political party is behind those attacks, without thorough investigation. And that is what the Hindus of Bangladesh are demanding.
"Bangladesh has a decades-long history of low-intensity communal tensions and opportunistic economic subjugation of Hindus. Land grabs of the poor Hindu people is the most common form of discrimination," Shafquat Rabbee, a Bangladeshi-American political analyst.
The continuous subjugation of the minorities in Bangladesh is reflected in the sharp dip in the population of Hindus in Bangladesh.
The share of Hindus in Bangladesh's population dipped from 22% in 1951 to around 8% in 2022. Meanwhile, the share of Muslims in the population mix rose to over 91% from 76% in 1951.
Rabbee is right when he says that it is Hindus, mostly in rural areas, who bear the major brunt of these attacks. Even in these three days of chaos and madness, most of the attacks on Hindus have taken place in rural areas, though those in cities haven't really been left untouched.
Chattogram saw the highest instances of attacks at 16. Khulna, Jessore, Dinajpur, Lalmonirhat and Magura are among the districts that saw a large number of attacks against Hindus.
"Rural Hindus are the most likely on the receiving end of such victimisation, resulting in continuous migration and asset transfers out of Bangladesh into India over the last many decades, under all sorts of political regimes," says Rabbee, faculty member at University of Dallas.
Between 1964 and 2013, over 11 million Hindus fled Bangladesh due to religious persecution, according to the Hindu American Foundation. It says 230,000 Hindus continue to leave the country every year.
Ahead of the 2024 election, Sheikh Hasina, portrayed as a secular leader and painted pro-Hindu by her rivals, wooed the Islamist Hefazat-e-Islam among other radical outfits.
Hindus are considered to be mostly Awami League voters, though there is a chunk of the community that is also loyal to Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
"Hindus in Bangladesh believe that if there is any unrest, they become the first to be attacked," says author-activist Anupam Roy.
"After the 2018 election, a Hindu woman was gang-raped because she voted for the BNP. In 2016, when the Awami League was in power, the Nasirnagar attacks took place, and that was led by an Awami League leader," says Roy.
In the Nasirnagar attacks, truckloads of Muslim zealots destroyed 300 houses and left 100 Hindus injured over a post seemingly critical of Islam.
"During the 2001-2006 BNP-Jamaat regime, there was heavy-handedness against Hindus. So, there is no party to protect Hindus in Bangladesh," adds Roy.
There is a strong correlation in an increased amount of violence against Hindus during volatile political situations, say experts. Political analyst Rabbee says this warrants a study of how many of these incidents are political and how many are "truly communal".
Rabbee says that a rough breakdown of political allegiance in Bangladesh would indicate that about 40% of Bangladeshis are supporters of the Awami League, 40% support the BNP, and the remaining 20% back the Jamaat-E-Islami, Jatiya Party and other Islamic and Communist parties.
"If you look at Bangladesh’s demography, there are roughly about 10% Hindus, and anecdotal evidence suggests a very large percentage of them are Awami League supporters," says Rabbee.
"Which means, close to 25% of the Awami League’s support base are Hindus, and the Hindu community has the highest representation in political leadership roles in the Awami League. Over the last 15 years of Sheikh Hasina’s dictatorship, there were opportunists from both Muslim and Hindu communities who proved their allegiance to the dictator by taking part in violent suppression of dissent," he says.
He says when the Awami League faced street protests, "the violence that ensued statistically encapsulates a good number of Hindu politicians and supporters, just like it engulfed the Muslim Awami Leaguers".
"Amid such violent chaos, what portion of these incidents are political revenge attacks and what portion are inherently communal is something that we need to figure out — not to say any of it is justified at all," adds Rabbee.
Dhaka-based Anupam Roy says there have been several narratives about the recent attacks, and there is no doubt that innocent minorities have been targeted too.
"There is a political aspect to the recent attacks on minorities, but there are several apolitical Hindus who have been attacked. I know several of those victims personally. These attacks have taken place because of Hindu hatred," says Roy.
Some say Hindus are shivering and are scared to even open the doors to their home.
“Hindus are shivering. They are not opening their doors without confirming who is knocking. Hindu minorities, from the Dhaka capital to the remote villages, are very scared,” Kajal Debnath, vice-president of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, told Associated Press.
Hundreds of Bangladeshis have reportedly reached the Indo-Bangla border in a likely bid to cross over to India.
But Rabbee adds that things are further complicated by viral misinformation on social media.
It is true that there have been large-scale attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh in the post-Hasina phase. It is also true that there has been a flood of fake videos and images claiming to be attacks on Hindus.
These also make the process of justice complicated, and also help by arming the naysayers.
The AFP fact-check unit in Dhaka has called out several such videos.
Journalist Quadruddin Shishir, who works for AFP's fact-check unit, says there is no denying the fact that there have been several attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh. However, he says, social media has helped spread false information too.
Shishir has debunked 20 such fake videos on his social media handles.
"I have found no authentic video till now of rape and murder of Hindus in Bangladesh in the recent post-Hasina scenario. I have debunked 20 such fake images and videos that claimed to be attacks on Hindus. I am working on 20 more such videos," he tells media.
Shishir gives the example of two such videos that went viral in India.
"A video claiming to be of the stoning of a Hindu man swimming in a pond to save his life was actually of a Muslim Awami League leader. Another video, claiming to be a Hindu student being harassed and made to do sit-ups was that of a Muslim Chhatra League activist," says Shishir. The Chhatra League is the students' wing of Sheikh Hasina's Awami League.
"This kind of false information is being spread by mostly Indian X handles and Facebook pages. There are a few Bangladeshi handles too behind such content," says Shishir.
Amid the fake videos of attacks, images of Muslims guarding temples and other Hindu properties have also been shared on social media.
However, the over 200 instances, in dozens where multiple Hindu sites and people were targeted, show how their vigil wasn't enough and that society could have done much better.
On August 10 and 11, lakhs of Hindus took to the streets of Dhaka to protest against the targeted attacks on them. They demanded protection and those behind the attacks be brought to book.
The head of the military-backed interim government in Bangladesh and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus visited the historic Dhakeshwari Temple in Dhaka on Tuesday. This was meant to be an act of assurance.
"We are one family. We want to build a Bangladesh that is united. There is no question of any discrimination on the basis of religion. Our only identity is that of a Bangladeshi," Yunus stated.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his congratulatory message to Yunus for his role as the head of the interim government also mentioned that Hindus in Bangladesh need to be protected.
On Monday (August 12), Bangladesh's new Home Affairs Adviser, Sakhawat Hussain, apologised to the community for not being able to adequately protect them.
Addressing the distressed Hindu community on Tuesday, Muhammad Yunus urged them for patience before passing judgement on his interim government's role in the ongoing crisis.
"The new government has vowed that there would be no attacks on Hindus, but we need to see how far this translates into action," author-activist Anupam Roy tells IndiaToday.In.
"I expect the new government to stay true to its promises, to form an independent commission to bring the guilty to book, compensate the victims and punish the guilty so that these attacks never take place," he adds.
A thorough probe is also needed because there are allegations that some Awami League leaders have plotted attacks on minorities for sensationalism and to show the deterioration in the scene after the fall of Hasina.
"There is immense political incentive for both the current Yunus government and the BNP to keep the Bangladeshi Hindus safe. On the other hand, there is tremendous political advantage for the Awami League to label any attack on any Hindu person under the last few weeks’ lawlessness as communal violence," says Bangladeshi-American analyst Rabbee.
Dhaka-based author-activist Roy says "We need proper investigation to find out the truth." With police personnel and law enforcement officials still away from duty, and time running out to collect evidence, justice for Hindus in Bangladesh could be a far cry.
