Protect Sikh, Hindu shrines in Bangladesh, Ravneet Bittu urges EAM

New Delhi, August 11

Noting the plight of religious minorities in Bangladesh in the wake of recent political turmoil there, Ravneet Singh Bittu, MoS, Railways and Food Processing Industries, has urged External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to assure members of Sikh and Hindu communities living in Bangladesh that India would safeguard their places of worship.

“I request you to assure the Sikh and Hindu communities of Bangladesh that the Indian Government will take all necessary steps to protect the Sikh shrines and Hindu temples there,” Bittu wrote in a letter addressed to Jaishankar.

According to an English daily published from Dhaka, Hindu houses and establishments in 27 districts were attacked and looted by mobs. The districts include Lalmonirhat Sadar, Kaliganj, Hatibandha, Dinajpur, Khansama, Khulna among others. Attempts by attackers to vandalise a temple at Railbazarhat were reportedly stopped by locals.

The daily also reported the death of at least 24 persons in Jessore after a mob set a hotel owned by a Hindu general secretary of the Awami League on fire.

The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, a religious minority advocacy group of Bangladesh, also listed multiple instances of atrocities against minorities and their places of worships in Bangladesh on August 4-5.

The former Ludhiana MP urged the External Affairs Minister to take up the issue with the authorities in Bangladesh so that two historic gurdwaras in Dhaka, Gurdwara Nanak Shahi and Gurdwara Sangal Tola, and Hindu temples were protected. — TNS