New York: Indian American members of the House of Representatives have demanded Congressional hearings on the targeted violence committed against Hindus in Bangladesh.
“When the Congress returns from recess, we must hold hearings to learn more about the failures to protect the Hindus and other minority groups in Bangladesh and how to prevent such actions from happening in the future,” Shri Thanedar said in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
He, along with another Congressman, Raja Krishnamoorthi, wrote to Blinken separately, pleading with Muhammad Yunus’s government to put an end to the violence directed towards Hindus in Bangladesh following Shiekh Hasina’s resignation as prime minister and her banishment to India.
Amid the confusion following the violent student-led rebellion, Yunus, the Nobel Prize-winning pioneer of microfinance, became Bangladesh’s interim leader.
Hindus, their businesses, and their temples have been targets for attacks, even as violence aimed towards the government has typically decreased.
In addition, Thanedar requested that Blinken grant Bangladeshi Hindus and other minorities temporary protected status, enabling them to remain in the country after their visas have expired until it is safe for them to return home.
“Instability in this region, fueled by religious intolerance and violence, is not in the interest of the United States or our allies,” stated Krishnamoorthi in his letter.
“I urge you to directly engage directly with Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus’ government and exert our influence to help his government end the violence and bring those responsible to justice,” he wrote.
Thanedar wrote, “The US has an obligation to assist this new government to ensure that the violence and civil unrest comes to an end.”
“I urge the [President Joe] Biden administration to grant persecuted Bangladeshi Hindus and other religious minorities temporary protected status as refugees,” he added.
In his letter, Krishnamoorthi mentioned the “credible eyewitness reports” that the BBC and The New York Times, among other Western media outlets, had published on the widespread attacks in Dhaka, other major cities and districts.
He added that anti-Hindu violence has extended to 45 of the 64 districts in the country this week, according to the minorities organisation Hindu-Buddhis-Christian Unity Council (Hindu-Bouddha-Christian Oikya Parisha).
“Sadly, this is not the first time that anti-government protests have metastasised into anti-Hindu violence,” he wrote, recalling the riots in 2021, 2017, and 2013 in which scores of Hindus were killed or “disappeared”.
In the meantime, US Ambassador for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussein met this week with a delegation of Hindu and minority organisations to urge Washington to guarantee the safety of minorities in Bangladesh.
The Hindu American Foundation’s Director of Policy Research, Anita Joshi, stated during the meeting that they informed Husseian of “the deafening silence of the United States in response to the violence against Hindus and other religious minorities in Bangladesh.” It is intolerable that Congress and the current administration have not acknowledged and denounced the violence committed against Hindus and other religious minorities.
The others who met the religious freedom official were Utsav Chakrabarti, Executive Director of HinduACTion, Priya Saha, executive director of the Human Rights Collective for Bangladesh Minorities, and geopolitical analyst Jay Kansara.
Earlier this week, Hindu-Bouddha-Christian Oikya Parishad leader Rana Dasgupta said that about 100 Hindus had been injured and two killed, and at least 10 temples were attacked.
–IANS
