Human rights abuses inflicted on Bangladesh Hindus, Ahmadis after July uprising: UN
Human rights abuses were inflicted on some members of Bangladeshi Hindu, Ahmadiyya Muslim, and indigenous communities during anti-discrimination protests and its aftermath last year, a UN report said.
“Bangladesh’s former government, security and intelligence services, alongside violent elements associated with the Awami League party, systematically engaged in a range of serious human rights violations during last year’s student-led protests,” the report by the UN Human Rights Office said.
The report said in the aftermath of the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government last year, “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, as well as other places such as Sylhet, Khulna, and Rangpur”.
The report said this destruction was especially prevalent in areas perceived to be sympathetic to the Awami League as Hindus have often been stereotypically associated with this political faction.
The fact-finding report also documents “troubling instances” of retaliatory killings and other serious revenge violence targeting Awami League officials and supporters, police and media as the former government started to lose control of the country.
“Hindus, Ahmadiyya Muslims and indigenous people from the Chittagong Hill Tracts were also subjected to human rights abuses. While some 100 arrests have reportedly been made, the perpetrators still enjoy impunity,” the report said.
Crackdown by Hasina left over 1,000 dead
Officials from Bangladesh’s former government and security apparatus systematically committed serious human rights violations against anti-Hasina protesters last summer, the UN human rights chief said on Wednesday. The UN called for urgent further criminal investigation into the violations. When asked for examples of the worse violations found in the report, a UN official said, “It’s a very brutal read; 78% of the over 1,000 protesters were killed using military rifles, shotguns with pellets.”
