UN report exposes Yunus on attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh
Though Muhammad Yunus, the Chief Advisor to the interim government in Bangladesh, repeatedly discarded incidents of violence against the Hindus as mere "exaggerated propaganda", a fact-finding report by the United Nations Human Rights Office debunked his claims by providing evidence of violent mob attacks, including assaults on places of worship of Hindus. Incidentally, the fact-finding team was sent at the invitation of Yunus' interim government.
After violent protests in Bangladesh forced now-ousted PM Sheikh Hasina to flee on August 5, 2024, Hindus, making up about 8% of the country's 17-crore population, faced deadly attacks, with their homes, businesses, and religious sites vandalised.
A week after Hasina's ouster in August 2024, India Today Digital scanned through reports and spoke to sources in Bangladesh to report that there were over 200 instances of attacks, including five killings, on minority Hindus in three days of chaos after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina regime in Bangladesh. However, even as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then-US President-elect Donald Trump criticised the attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh, Yunus downplayed the violence against Hindus, describing it as "exaggerated propaganda" with political motives aimed at destabilising the nation.
The UN report released on February 12 also noted that violent mob attacks on Hindu minorities in Bangladesh began even before Hasina was forced to flee to India. It also revealed that, along with the Hindus, Ahmadiyya Muslims and indigenous groups in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, were subjected to similar atrocities in Bangladesh.
"During and after the protests, members of the Hindu community, Ahmadiyya Muslims and indigenous groups in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, were also subject to violent attacks by mobs, including burning of homes and some attacks on places of worship," said the report in its summary.
Hindus and other minority communities earlier claimed that the Yunus-led interim government hadn't protected them adequately. Hindus in Bangladesh faced over 2,000 attack incidents after Hasina was forced to flee in August 2024, news agency Associated Press in November reported, quoting the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, a minority rights group.
Between November 26, 2024, and January 25, 2025, "76 cases of incidents of attacks against Hindus have been reported in Bangladesh. Since August, reports have cited deaths of 23 Hindus and 152 incidents of attack on Hindu temples in Bangladesh," according to Kirti Vardhan Singh, the minister of state (MoS) of the Ministry of External Affairs, said in the Parliament last week.
The UN report has also pointed out the specific places in Bangladesh where violence against Hindus took place.
"According to information submitted to OHCHR, in Burashardubi, Hatibandha, Lalmonirhat three temples were attacked and set ablaze, along with the looting of approximately 20 houses, reflecting significant levels of community unrest," noted the UN report.
"In the aftermath of the former [Hasina] Government's fall, widespread attacks were reported against Hindu homes, businesses, and places of worship, especially in rural and historically tense areas such as Thakurgaon, Lalmonirhat, and Dinajpur, but also in other places such as Sylhet, Khulna, and Rangpur," the report noted.
The incidents of violence against Hindus included property destruction, arson, and physical threats, exacerbated by inadequate police action, indicating systemic impunity and possible political motives, the report revealed.
The report also revealed that these attacks on Hindus were driven by "religious and ethnic discrimination, revenge against [Sheikh Hasina's] Awami League supporters among minorities, local communal disputes over land, and interpersonal issues".
"Some Jamaat-e-Islami and BNP supporters, members and local leaders were also involved in revenge violence and attacks on distinct religious and indigenous groups," noted the report.
What has to be noted is that the attacks weren't just for political retribution, as several community temples were targeted.
The UN report titled, 'Human Rights Violations and Abuses related to the Protests of July and August 2024 in Bangladesh', that was conducted at "the invitation of the Interim Government of Bangladesh", has thus exposed Muhammad Yunus' claims of "exaggerated propaganda".
Earlier in November 2024, a report by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) revealed that minorities, including Hindus, had suffered in the first 100 days of the Muhammad Yunus government in Bangladesh. The report cited 2,010 incidents of communal violence under the post-Hasina regime and the lack of effort to identify and punish the perpetrators.
The report by TIB also said that the influence of religion-based politics was increasing in Bangladesh.
ATROCITIES AGAINST HINDUS IN BANGLADESH CONTINUE
The minority Hindu community in Bangladesh, became easy targets of Islamist forces after Hasina's Awami League government was toppled. They celebrated their biggest festival, Durga Puja, under the shadow of threats.
Chinmoy Krishna Das, a Hindu monk leading a movement for minority rights in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, was charged with sedition and jailed over saffron flags, in what appeared to be a crackdown on protests. Since his arrest in November 2024, the ailing Das has been kept behind bars, with his bail pleas repeatedly quashed amid violent opposition from Islamist forces.
The UN report, along with findings from Transparency International Bangladesh, has systematically debunked Muhammad Yunus' claims by documenting targeted violence against Hindus and other minorities under his interim government. The evidence of mob attacks, police inaction, and rising religious extremism shows that rather than being "exaggerated propaganda", the persecution of minorities, including Hindus, is a harsh reality that Yunus cannot choose to ignore.
A UN report on human rights violations and abuses has debunked Muhammad Yunus' claims of "exaggerated propaganda" by confirming widespread violence against Hindus, their temples and businesses in post-Hasina Bangladesh. The report, conducted on the invitation of Yunus' interim government...
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