Dhaka: The Bangladeshi capital witnessed total chaos on Friday evening after thousands of Hindus poured out on to the streets to protest the alleged desecration of an image of Lord Ram by radical Islamists.
The radicals are opposing the construction of a statue of Lord Ram in Rangpur that is slated to the tallest in the country.
The construction has now been halted and Hindus staged a torchlight protest in Dhaka, raising ‘Jai Shri Ram’ chants and demanding the arrest of those behind the alleged desecration.
This comes days after the construction of an 81-foot-tall statue of Lord Ram in Palashbari in northern Gaibandha district was put on hold, as reported by India Today.
Authorities received threats from Islamist groups, the Sri Sri Radha Govinda Temple committee, which is behind the project, claimed, bringing to the forefront concerns about minority rights in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.
A case has been registered against those who desecrated the image and issued threats, but no arrests have been made so far. The Hindus have given the authorities 72 hours to act.
Several Hindu organisations and students gathered at the key Shahbagh intersection and marched to the National Press Club on Friday. The protest call was given by the Hindu Mahajot. The outfit also organised a human chain in front of the National Press Club. Another section staged a protest near the Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) building.
A minor scuffle was reported from Rangpur, where the police stopped Hindus from holding a demonstration. The protesters claimed that an Islamist mob desecrated an image of Lord Ram by placing a shoe on it during a demonstration in Gaibandha earlier this month.
The Hindu community warned of further rallies and protests unless the Tarique Rahman-led BNP government arrests the perpetrators. A memorandum has also be submitted to the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
The Hindu Mahajot has said that if the construction of the Lord Ram statue was not allowed to resume, they would build a Ram temple one by one in all the 64 districts of Bangladesh.
The National Committee for Puja Celebrations announcing a nationwide agitation and the protests continued on Saturday.
Nearly 80% work on the statue of Lord Ram, being built as part of a temple complex at Palashbari, has been completed. The proposed project, estimated to cost around 22 crore Bangladesh taka (around Rs 15.6 crore), also includes a 50-foot statue of Lord Krishna and a 30-foot statue of Lord Shiva.
The work was stopped after Islamist groups issued threats against those involved in the project, Haridas Chandra Das, president of the Sri Sri Radha Govinda Temple committee, said. A radical Islamic preacher even threatened to demolish the statue with a bulldozer.
“We are scared, and in fear and out of fear, we have kept the work suspended,” Das told the media. He also appealed to prime minister Tarique Rahman to intervene. Das said the statue was being built as a tribute to one of the central figures of Sanatan Dharma.
The decision to halt work was taken to “preserve social harmony”, temple committee adviser Shyamlal Kumar Mahanta said in a statement.
“We are stopping this work to maintain law and order and communal harmony. We do not want to become the cause of any dispute, nor do we wish to hurt anyone’s religious sentiments,” the committee stated.
Hindus are the largest religious minority in Bangladesh, making up around 8% of the country’s population. The development comes at a time when targeting of Hindus is seeing an uptick after the crisis seen during the previous Muhammad Yunus regime.
While Rahman, who took charge in February, has repeatedly asserted that everyone in Bangladesh has the right to practice their religion, around 133 incidents of communal violence have been recorded between January 1 and March 31 this year.
