Bangladesh’s religious minorities
are under attack, The prime minister blames India’s Muslim-
bashing for Hindu-bashing in her own country
Nov 6th 2021
One day in October Dilip Das had a bath, donned a
new shirt presented to him by his son and prepared a
garland of flowers before setting off for his local
temple in Cumilla, a city of 300,000 in eastern
Bangladesh. It was Durga Puja, the most important
festival in the Bengali Hindu calendar. By the end of
the day the 62-year-old Mr Das was dead,
bludgeoned by a Muslim mob. “What was his sin?”
asks Rupa Das, his wife. “He was just a simple man, a washerman,” who had lived happily alongside his
Muslim neighbours.
Mr Das was a victim of widespread unrest that day
in Bangladesh, which is 90% Muslim. A copy of the
Koran had been found in one of the temporary
temples erected for the festival in Cumilla. A video
showing a police officer carrying the Islamic holy
book, with a voice-over claiming it had been rescued
from under the feet of a Hindu idol, quickly went
viral on Facebook and WhatsApp, unleashing a wave
of attacks on Hindus and other religious minorities,
too. Outside the main mosque in Dhaka, the capital,
a crowd of 10,000 chanted, “Hang the culprits”.
Across much of the country Muslim rioters beat
Hindus and pillaged their property. Hundreds were
wounded and at least three died, along with four
Muslim protesters who were gunned down by police.