18 Hindus In Bangladesh Charged With Sedition; What’s Their Offence?

New Delhi: Hindus and other minorities have been targeted in Bangladesh in the last few months since Sheikh Hasina’s ouster. Even former US Presidential candidate Donald Trump, who is bidding for a second term in White House, recently condemned the “barbaric violence against Hindus, Christians, and other minorities who are getting attacked and looted by mobs in Bangladesh.”

At a time when Hindu organisations held a large gathering in Chattogram, seeking a law and tribunal for the protection of minorities, 18 Hindus have been charged with sedition and 2 persons arrested.

Their offence — hoisting of a saffron flag.

The sedition case pertains to an October 25 incident, when Hindu organisations held a massive rally in Chattogram to press for their eight-point demand, including forming a tribunal to prosecute those who oppress minorities, bringing a law on minority protection and establishing a ministry for minorities.

“A section of people in Bangladesh have tried to project the eight-point demand as one backed by the Awami League and the Indian government,” Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari, one of those charged with sedition and president of Pundarik Dham, told India Today Digital.

He claimed that their protests aren’t political, and not against the Bangladesh government, but to put pressure on the Mohammed Yunus-headed interim administration to work towards preserving minority rights.

The sedition case was filed by Firoz Khan, a local leader of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, at Chattogram’s Kotwali Police Station on October 30. Bangladesh’s Penal Code of 1860 mandates that sedition can lead to imprisonment for up to life.

Brahmachari said the sedation case is fallacious on many counts.

“First, the flag that has been branded as Bangladesh’s national flag has four crescents and stars on four corners and is an Islamist flag. Second, the so-called national flag had been flown flouting flag rules. Third, the saffron flags were raised on separate poles,” he told India Today Digital.