2012 Fatehpur Violence refers to the attack on the minority Hindu community in the Fatehpur village under Kaliganj upazila in Satkhira District in south-western Bangladesh on the 31 March 2012.
2012 Fatehpur Violence refers to the attack on the minority Hindu community in the Fatehpur village under Kaliganj upazila in Satkhira District in south-western Bangladesh on the 31 March 2012.
On 26 March 2012, on the occasion of the Independence Day the students of Fatehpur High School staged a play adapted from the short story 'Huzur Kebla' by eminent Bangladeshi politician and litterateur Abul Mansur Ahmed. [1] The text is included in the syllabus of Bengali in the university degree courses. [1] Three days later, on 29 March 2012, Dainik Drishtipat and Dainik Alor Parash, two Jamaat-e-Islami supported local newspapers reported that blasphemous remarks about the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, were made in the drama. Though the news was proved to be false later on, tensions began to mount once the news spread. [2]
On 30 March, South Sripur Union Parishad member Abu Jafar Sanpui filed a case with Kaliganj police station accusing a dramatist, a headmaster and an assistant headmaster. Police arrested the headmaster and the assistant teacher and send them to jail. [3]
A group of Muslims and mullahs held noisy demonstrations after Jumma prayers on Friday, blocking roads for hours. [4]
On Saturday, people from neighbouring areas began to gather in Fatehpur village under the banner of Touhidi Janata. [5] Hundreds of people from Krishnanagar and Bishnupur unions and other areas assembled outside the Fatehpur village of South Sripur union. At around 9 a.m. they attacked the Fatehpur High School and Fatehpur Government Primary School with sticks, iron rods and machetes. Then they attacked the houses of Shahinur Rahman and his three brothers and set them on fire. In the Banshtala market, they set fire to the shop of Abdul Hakim Sardar, a member of the administrative committee of Fatehpur High School. [6] Then as the sun set the Muslims burnt down the house of 7 Hindu families including Mita Rani Hazra. They also robbed valuable things from those houses.
On Sunday afternoon, rumour spread that Lalita Sardar, a Hindu housewife from Chakdaha village had made another blasphemous remark about Muhammad. People began to gather in the Sardar residence. In the evening, Firoz Kabir Kajal, the president of Nazimganj Bazar Committee arrived at their house along local Union Parishad members. They began to pressurize Lalita to publicly apologize for her blasphemous remarks. During this meeting about two hundred youths from nearby villages gathered near their house and threatened to kick the family and send them to India. At around 7 pm thousands of teenagers and youths were called to the spot from the different villages of Kaliganj Upazila. The outsiders gathered around the houses of the minority Hindus and began to pelt stones and brick bats in their houses. The Hindu men, women and children fearing for their lives, began to run towards safety. The attackers then broke open their houses and looted their valuables, including jewelry, garments, land deeds and other valuable documents. They also snatched the jewelry box from Lalita Sardar. After securing the loot in safe havens, the miscreants doused the houses in petrol and set them on fire. The houses of 10 Hindu families were looted and set on fire. The loot and arson took place in the presence of the police. The fire brigade was blocked from entering into the area until the houses were completely burnt. The District Magistrate, District Superintendent of Police, the Additional D.I.G. (Khulna Range) and RAB officers arrived at night and tried to bring things under control. [1]
A week after the attacks, the majority of the Hindu victims still remained terrorized. Members of many of the families haven't returned to their houses. [7]
On Wednesday, 11 April 2012 District Commissioner of Satkhira District canceled declaration of the daily drishtipat because of provocating the attack on Hindu families and failure to answer show cause order of the High Court. [8]
Mainstream Bangladeshi media completely maintained a silence over this incident. Then as the Hindu Students of Jagannath Hall of Dhaka University protested against the persecution. Bangladeshi media highlighted this event. Students of Dhaka University Jagannath Hall staged demonstrations putting up barricades on Shahbag-Matsya Bhaban road on Thursday, 5 April 2012 morning. Nearly 500 students brought out a procession from their dormitory in the morning and later took position at Shahbagh around 10:30 am. They demanded tougher actions against the people responsible for the incident. Earlier, on Wednesday night, the students blocked Elephant-Matsya Bhaban road for an hour on the same issue. Bangladesh Hindu Mohajot also protested against the incident. [9]
The Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban is the house of the Parliament of Bangladesh, located at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka. Designed while the country was still part of Pakistan by architect Louis Kahn, the complex is one of the largest legislative complexes in the world, covering 208 acres (840,000 m2).
Bangladesh Chhatra League ; abbr.BSL/BCL), formerly known as the East Pakistan Student League, simply called the Chhatra League, is the student wing of the political party, Bangladesh Awami League, founded by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 4 January 1948. The organisation is banned and designated as a terrorist organisation by the Interim Government of Bangladesh.
The 1964 East Pakistan riots refer to the massacre and ethnic cleansing of Bengali Hindus from East Pakistan in the wake of an alleged theft of what was believed to be the Prophet's hair from the Hazratbal shrine in Jammu and Kashmir in India. The salient feature of the pogroms was its urban nature and selective targeting of Bengali Hindu owned industries and merchant establishments in the capital city of Dhaka. This resulted in unending waves of Bengali Hindu refugees in neighbouring West Bengal. The refugee rehabilitation became a national problem in India, and hundreds of refugees were resettled in Dandakaranya region of Odisha & Madhya Pradesh.
The 1950 East Pakistan riots took place between Hindus and Muslims in East Pakistan, which resulted in several thousands of Hindus being killed in pogroms.
Malaun is a derogatory religious slur for Bengali Hindus and Hindus in general, most commonly used by Bengali Muslims in Bangladesh. The word is derived from the Arabic "ملعون", meaning "accursed" or "deprived of God's Mercy".
Muzaffarabad massacre was the massacre of the residents of predominantly Hindu village of Muzaffarabad now under Kharna Union of Patiya Upazila in Chittagong District of Bangladesh on 3 May 1971 by the Pakistani army aided by the local collaborators. An estimated 300 Bengali Hindus, from 5-year-old child to 80 years old men and women were killed in the massacre. More than 500 houses were burnt to ashes. According to eyewitnesses, Rameez Ahmed Chowdhury, the then Chairman of Kharna Union, and his aides were responsible for the massacre.
Demra massacre in Bangladesh was the massacre of unarmed Hindu residents of the villages under Demra Union in present-day Faridpur Upazila in Pabna District by the Pakistan Army aided by local collaborators on 13 May 1971. It is estimated that 800–900 people were killed in a single day. Rape and plunder were also carried out and temples, schools and houses were set on fire.
Char Bhadrasan massacre refers to the massacre of around 60 unarmed Bengali Hindu residents in Char Bhadrasan in Faridpur district of East Pakistan by the Pakistani occupation army and the Razakars in the middle of May 1971. Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, the leader of Jamaat-e-Islami led a team of Razakars and Pakistani army to the Hindu-dominated villages of Baidyadangi, Majhidangi and Baladangi where they massacred 50-60 unarmed Bengali Hindus. The attackers set fire to 300-350 Hindu households forcing them to flee the country.
Dakra massacre refers to the massacre of unarmed Hindu refugees at the village of Dakra, in the Bagerhat sub-division of Khulna District on 21 May 1971 by the Peace Committee members and the Razakars. The attackers were led by Rajab Ali Fakir, the chairman of the Bagerhat sub-divisional Peace Committee. It is alleged that 646 men, women and children were killed in the massacre.
2012 Chirirbandar violence refers to the attack on the minority Hindu community by Islamic extremists in Chirirbandar Upazila of Dinajpur District in the Division of Rangpur, Bangladesh on 4 August 2012.
1992 Bangladesh pogroms was a series of violence against the Bengali Hindus and other non-Muslim minorities of Bangladesh, by Islamists in protest against the demolition of Babri Masjid and violence against Muslims in India driven out of hate and revenge mindset continuing from almost 1947. The incidents of violence began in December 1992 and continued till March 1993.
In 1990, a series of attacks against the Bengali Hindus in Bangladesh occurred in late October and early November, following a rumour that the Babri mosque in Ayodhya in India had been demolished. The attacks on the Hindus began on 30 October and continued till 2 November.
On 28 February 2013, the International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, the vice-president of the Jamaat-e-Islami to death for war crimes committed during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. Following the sentence, activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir attacked Hindus in different parts of the country. Hindu properties were looted, Hindu houses were burnt into ashes and Hindu temples were desecrated and set on fire. While the government has held the Jamaat-e-Islami responsible for the attacks on minorities, the Jamaat-e-Islami leadership has denied any involvement. Minority leaders have protested the attacks and appealed for justice. The Supreme Court of Bangladesh has directed law enforcement to start suo motu investigation into the attacks. The US Ambassador to Bangladesh expressed concern about attacks by Jamaat on the Bengali Hindu community.
Shankharikathi massacre refers to the killings of unarmed Hindu men by the Razakars in Shankharikathi market, Alukdia village of greater Khulna district in Bangladesh on 4 November 1971. 42 Hindus were killed in the massacre.
On 5 January 2014, the 10th general elections were held in Bangladesh. The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami had already boycotted the elections. The buildup to the elections were marred by successive strikes and violence by the opposition parties. Victims claimed after the polls, workers and supporters of the opposition parties began attacking the minority Bengali Hindus. Accusing of looting, vandalising and setting the Hindu houses on fire in several districts across the country. Seven persons belonging to the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party were arrested in connection with the attacks. The National Human Rights Commission held the government responsible for the attacks on Hindus after the election. In India, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party condemned the attacks on minorities.
The 2016 Nasirnagar violence was an attack on the minority Hindu community led by radical Islamist groups in Nasirnagar Upazila, Bangladesh over an allegedly defamatory social media post by a Hindu fisherman against Islam on 30 October 2016. The attack left 19 temples and approximately 300 houses vandalized and over 100 people injured.
The non-cooperation movement, also known as the one-point movement, was a pro-democratic disinvestment movement and a mass uprising against the Awami League-led government of Bangladesh, initiated within the framework of 2024 Bangladesh quota reform movement. The sole demand of this movement was the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her cabinet. It was the final stage of the wider movement known as the Student–People's uprising or the July Revolution. Although the movement was initially limited to the goal of reforming quotas in government jobs, it snowballed into a mass anti-government uprising after the deaths of several protesters. The movement was also fueled by ongoing socio-economic and political issues, including the government's mismanagement of the national economy, rampant corruption by government officials, human rights violations, allegations of undermining the country's sovereignty by Sheikh Hasina, and increasing authoritarianism and democratic backsliding.
Following the resignation of Sheikh Hasina on August 5, 2024, attacks began on the homes, businesses, and places of worship of the Hindu community in Bangladesh. The Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council reported that from August 4 to August 20, a total of 2,010 incidents of attacks on Hindus took place across the country within this 16-day period. Among the incidents, 157 families were violently ransacked, looted, and set ablaze, their businesses razed to the ground. According to analysts, most of these attacks were not communal but a mix of political retributions or general criminal offences amid a law and order crisis in the country. 9 Hindus were killed in these attacks, of which at least 2 were confirmed as Awami League members. Meanwhile, Indian media as well as Indian social media accounts began to disseminate disinformation on the attacks; BBC Verify both confirmed some attacks hurt minorities and found that many claims about the violence were unverified, exaggerated, or misleadingly framed. Fact checkers highlighted the situation's complexity and the difficulties in accurately assessing causes of violence.
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