Amensty International has issued a Media Briefing on the elections going to be held in Bangladesh on December 29, 2008.
It is a long article you can read the whole report here.
In this post only that part of the Briefings in presented which related to their concerns about minorities in Bangladesh.
Amensty International stated parliamentary elections scheduled for 29 December offer a unique opportunity for improving Bangladesh’s battered human rights situation.
Quote:
Attacks against minorities
Fear of attacks against minorities, including Hindus, is a real concern given the electoral violence during and immediately after the parliamentary elections of October 2001. Sporadic attacks against minorities had frequently occurred during parliamentary elections in Bangladesh but the violence took an unprecedented turn during the last elections in 2001. Crowds of assailants, whom journalists and survivors described as members of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led coalition, which won the elections, drove hundreds of Hindu families off their land, and in some cases burnt their homes, apparently on grounds of the Hindus’ perceived support for the opposition Awami League party. Bnagladeshi newspapers reported that dozens of Hindu women had been raped and at least one Hindu man was hacked to death. Government action – from late 2001 onwards – to contain the violence prevented the recurrence of mass scale attacks but no one was brought to justice for the attacks. There are legitimate fears within the human rights community and members of the Hindu minority that similar attacks against Hindus could occur during the forthcoming elections.
Another alarming development since late 2003 has been the rise in attack and hate speech against members of the Ahmadiyya community. The attacks have largely been instigated by Khatm-e Nabuwat, an Islamic group demanding that the government declares the Ahmadiyya sect non-Muslim. Instances of such attacks include the killing of an Ahmadi imam, “excommunication” by laying siege to Ahmadi houses and not letting inhabitants out of their homes, the beating of dozens of Ahmadis, and the marching of crowds attempting to occupy Ahmadiyya places of worship and drive the Ahmadis out. Although the previous government and the present Caretaker Government have prevented agitators from entering Ahmadi places of worship or large-scale abuses against their members, there is a high risk of their exposure to such attacks during the unpredictable times of elections.
Unquote.
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