Dhaka: Can the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) that swept into power in the country on Friday ensure the safety of Hindus and other minorities?
Yet another Hindu man was killed in Bangladesh, barely a day before general elections were held there on Thursday.
The body of Ratan Shuvo Kar (28) was found with his hands and feet tied in Kamalganj upazila of Moulvibazar, The Daily Star reported.
Kar was a worker at Champara Tea Garden under the Islampur Union. Authorities recovered the body and registered a case after locals reported the incident. The body has been sent for an autopsy.
Locals found the body in the garden around 10 am on Wednesday and informed authorities, as reported by timesnow.in. They said that his body had visible injury marks and there were signs of bleeding.
The Daily Star report has quoted a worker at the garden as saying that locals suspect that Kar may have been killed elsewhere. His body was later dumped at that spot. Some locals believe that Ratan’s death may be linked to the election, though no evidence of this has been found yet.
Kar was missing since Tuesday night, his brother Laxman said. His family had been searching for him all around.
“This morning, we were informed that his body was lying in the garden. We went there and identified him. We do not know why he was killed,” Laxman said, as per the report.
On Monday night, Susen Chandra Sarkar (62), a rice trader, was hacked to death by unidentified assailants inside his shop in the Trishal Upazila of the country’s Mymensingh district. He was a resident of Southkanda village.
These killings are among a series of targeted attacks on members of the minority Hindu community that started in December.
After the election results in the country became clear, exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin delivered a sharp and deeply critical assessment of the country’s political landscape in an exclusive interview with News18 India.
Taslima expressed hope that the BNP) will uphold democratic values. “I hope democracy will be back, because BNP believes in democracy. I hope they protect democracy and secularism, human rights and minority rights,” she said.
She also spoke strongly against the Jamaat-e-Islami, alleging that the party had collaborated with the Pakistan Army during Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War.
“Jamaat-e-Islami was the collaborator of the Pakistani Army in 1971. They helped them kill three million Bengali people and rape 200,000 Bengali women. They were against the independence of Bangladesh,” she claimed.
She described Jamaat as the “main opposition party” in the current scenario, calling it unprecedented in Bangladesh’s history. According to her, Jamaat’s rise has been enabled by the absence of the Awami League.
Taslima stressed that secularism remains essential for Bangladesh’s future.
“Secularism is needed for this country, otherwise it would be like another Afghanistan. Because jihadists and Islamic fundamentalists are there, we have to save the country from them. They are anti-India, pro-Pakistan and were anti-independence,” she said.
