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. [1]
In 1988, President Hussain Muhammad Ershad, had amended the Constitution of Bangladesh to declare Islam as the state religion of Bangladesh. In the fall of 1989, an anti-Hindu pogrom took place in Bangladesh, marked by widespread destruction of Hindu temples and violence against the Hindus, following the laying of foundation of Ram temple in faraway Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, India. The relations between the majority Muslims and minority Hindus remained tense and as the events unfolded in Ayodhya.[ citation needed ]
On 29 October, the Jamaat-e-Islami-funded newspaper The Daily Inqilab ran a top story "Babri mosque destroyed".[ clarification needed ] Tensions began to mount in the country after the publication of the rumour that Babri mosque had been demolished.
In Old Dhaka, Muslim protesters attempted to set fire to Hindu temples which was foiled by the police. The demonstrators, however, seized the cameras of the newsmen outside the temple. The administrator imposed curfew in parts of Dhaka following the incident. On 30 October, while President Hussain Muhammad Ershad was addressing a youth conference in Bangabhavan, Islamist mobs attacked the Gouri Math and set fire to Hindu-owned shops just to the south of Bangabhavan. [2] On 31 October, about 1,000 Muslims allegedly marched to the Indian embassy in Dhaka. [3] The curfew was extended to the entire city.
In Lalbagh, the Dhakeshwari Temple and other buildings with the temple complex were looted, vandalised and set on fire. The residence of the priest and ten other Hindu families were looted, vandalised and set on fire. The priest saved his life by jumping over the wall of the temple complex. The arson continued for four hours. [1] The Durga temple at Lalbagh Road, the Girigovardhan Jiu temple at Pushparaj Saha Lane, Raghunath Jiu akhara at Haranath Ghosh Lane and the Kamrangirchar crematorium at Lalbagh was looted and vandalised. More than 50 Hindu houses and shops were looted at vandalised at Lalbagh Road and Haranath Ghosh Road. [1]
In Hazaribagh, three Hindu temples in Bhagalpur Lane were attacked, looted and vandalised. The images were broken. [1] 17 Hindus were stabbed at Nagar Beltoli Lane. In Nagar Beltoli and Hazaribagh around 100 Hindu houses and shops and about a dozen Hindu temples were looted vandalised and set on fire. [1] In Sutrapur, fourteen Hindu temples, akharas and mutts were attacked, looted, vandalised and set on fire. More than 100 Hindu shops and houses were looted and vandalised. In most cases they were set on fire. [1]
Tension also began to mount in Chittagong, the second largest city of Bangladesh with a 30% Hindu population. [4] On the evening of 30 October, trouble erupted in the city. [4] Muslim mobs took to the streets in protest of the alleged demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya. The police fired in the air to disperse the crowd and imposed indefinite curfew in Chittagong. [3] After the midnight past 30 October, a 2,000 strong Islamist mob armed with knives and iron rods rampaged through the residential area surrounding the Kaibalyadham temple and set fire to more than 300 Hindu homes. When the fire fighters arrived, the mob prevented them from entering the area. [3] During the midnight attacks, around 1,500 Hindu fishermen of Chowkbazar fled their homes. A 200 strong mob tried to destroy temples and burn Hindu-owned shops in Reazuddin Bazar and Chittagong Medical College. 50 thatched huts of Hindu fishermen were destroyed. A Hindu-owned garage was attacked and five vehicles were damaged. On the dawn of 31 October, a group of 100 Islamists broke the curfew and desecrated a Hindu shrine. [3] On 2 November, the curfew was relaxed for a few hours to allow for the Friday prayers. A 500 strong Islamist mob, armed with knives and home made bombs attacked a Hindu village in the outskirts of Chittagong. [5] Around 100 Hindus were injured in separate incidents of violences in Patharganj, Boalkhali, Anwara and Hathazari. [5]
Anti-Hindu violence was reported from Dhaka and 12 other cities of Bangladesh. [5] The Daily Ittefaq reported incidents of anti-Hindu violences from Jessore, Narail, Gaibandha, Mymensingh, Sunamganj and Sylhet. [4]
The Hindus displaced during the attacks on Pahartali in Chittagong, set up a refugee camp on a hill above the Kaibalyadham temple, where around 500 Hindus took shelter.[ citation needed ]
Babri Masjid was a mosque in Ayodhya, India, which many Hindus believe was built upon the site of Ram Janmabhoomi, the hypothesized birthplace of Rama, a principal deity of Hinduism. It has been a focus of dispute between the Hindu and Muslim communities since the 18th century. According to the mosque's inscriptions, it was built in 1528–29 by Mir Baqi, a commander of the Mughal emperor Babur. The mosque was attacked and demolished by a Hindu nationalist mob in 1992, which ignited communal violence across the Indian subcontinent.
Ram Janmabhoomi is the site that is hypothesized to be the birthplace of Rama, believed to be the seventh avatar of the Hindu deity Vishnu. The Ramayana states that the location of Rama's birthplace is on the banks of the Sarayu river in a city called "Ayodhya". Modern-day Ayodhya is in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
Hindus have experienced both historical and ongoing religious persecution and systematic violence, in the form of forced conversions, documented massacres, genocides, demolition and desecration of temples, as well as the destruction of educational centres.
The Ayodhya dispute is a political, historical, and socio-religious debate in India, centred on a plot of land in the city of Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. The issues revolve around the control of a site traditionally regarded among Hindus to be the birthplace of their deity Rama, the history and location of the Babri Masjid mosque at the site, and whether a previous Hindu temple was demolished or modified to create the mosque.
1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1989th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 989th year of the 2nd millennium, the 89th year of the 20th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1980s decade.
The demolition of the Babri Masjid was carried out on 6 December 1992 by a large group of activists of the Vishva Hindu Parishad and allied organisations. The 16th-century Babri Masjid in the city of Ayodhya, in Uttar Pradesh, India, had been the subject of a lengthy socio-political dispute, and was targeted after a political rally organised by Hindu nationalist organisations turned violent.
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 hundreds of thousands of Hindus being killed in pogroms.
Sitakunda massacre refers to the massacre of Hindu pilgrims on 15 February 1950. The Hindu pilgrims from all over East Bengal, Tripura and Assam were on their way to Sitakunda on the occasion of Maha Shivaratri at the Chandranath temple. The pilgrims were attacked by the Ansars and armed Muslim mobs and massacred at the Sitakunda railway station.
2012 Hathazari Violence denotes a series of attacks against the minority Hindu community by the majority Muslim in Hathazari Upazila of Chittagong District in the Division of Chittagong, Bangladesh on the 9 and 10 February 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.
The 1989 Bangladesh riots were a series of attacks against the Bengali Hindus in October - November, apparently as a reaction to the laying of the foundation of Ram temple adjacent to Demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in India. In the pogroms, thousands of Hindu homes and businesses were destroyed. More than 400 Hindu temples were destroyed.
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.
The 1990 Hyderabad riots were a series of riots that occurred in Hyderabad of Telangana, the then Andhra Pradesh state of India in 1990. The riots left about 200–300 people dead and thousands injured.
Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh is a far-right conservative-islamic advocacy group consisted mostly of hard-line religious teachers and students. In 2013, they submitted a 13-point charter to the Government of Bangladesh, which included the demand for the enactment of a blasphemy law.
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 Ram Rath Yatra was a political and religious rally that lasted from September to October 1990. It was organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Hindu nationalist affiliates, and led by the then-president of the BJP, L. K. Advani. The purpose of the yatra was to support the agitation, led by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and its affiliates in the Sangh Parivar, to erect a temple to the Hindu deity Rama on the site of the Babri Masjid.
A series of rallies, demonstrations, and blockades opposing the visit of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were held in Bangladesh from 19 to 29 March, on the celebration of the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan. Accusing Narendra Modi of committing crimes against humanity during the 2002 Gujarat riots, the protesters agitated against what they alleged were India's anti-Muslim policies and India's interference in Bangladeshi politics. Protesters demanded the cancellation of the Bangladesh government's invitation to the Indian Prime Minister. The otherwise peaceful protests turned violent when the protesters were attacked by the supporters of the ruling Awami League party along with a crackdown by the law-enforcement agencies, causing the deaths of several protesters throughout the last week of March 2021 in Bangladesh. Initially launched by progressive student organizations including the Bangladesh Students Union, Bangladesh Sadharon Chhatra Odhikar Songrokkhon Parishad, and the Socialist Students' Front, the demonstrations were later joined by the Islamic group Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh.
From 13 to 19 October 2021, Muslim mobs instigated communal violence against Hindu communities across Bangladesh during the Durga Puja festival, in response to a viral video where Quran was kept under a temple idol feet. More than 50 temples and makeshift worship arrangements were vandalized all over Bangladesh
Rama Navami is a Hindu festival celebrating the birthday of Hindu deity Rama. It falls on the 9th day of the Chaitra month every year in the Hindu calendar, usually during the months of March–April. At least since 1979, if not earlier, This festival often involves processions of Hindu worshipers through cities, including Muslim-majority regions. These displays, often considered provocative, have repeatedly led to violence between Hindu and Muslim communities. Scholar Paul Brass states that Rama himself has been turned into a political emblem of the RSS family of organisations, and the Rama Navami processions are "led by or turned into provocative displays" by Hindutva organisations such as the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal.
