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Minorities came under alliance attack after polls

Public commission probe report says

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
A probe report has blamed the ruling BNP and its affiliates in the four-party coalition for repression on the religious minorities in the wake of the 2001 general election.
The ruling alliance workers attacked the minorities, mostly Hindus, just after the polls, claiming that they voted for a particular party, said Professor Zillur Rahman Siddiqui, disclosing the report at a press conference in the city yesterday.
"Killing, physical torture, rape, damage, arson, looting, extortion and forced eviction were the forms of repression," said Professor Siddiqui, who headed a three-member public probe commission formed in November 2001.
"Before the elections, the attackers threatened the minorities not to show up at polling centres," said the report of the commission, instituted by the Committee to Prevent Communalism and Save Civic FROM PAGE 1
Rights, with Barrister Shafiq Ahmed as its member and Advocate Tabarak Hossain as member secretary.
"It seemed that the attacks were carried out with a long-term motive to root out religious minorities -socially and politically -- from the mainstream of society and to establish a monolithic social system and theocratic state like Afghanistan and Pakistan," Prof Siddiqui quoted from the report.
The incidents cannot be described as riot, as the repression was one-sided, he said with more to the point: it appeared that some people planned to cleanse the minorities.
"The affected people told the commission that they would not cast vote in future elections and urged the government to drop their names from the voters' list," he went on.
The commission accused law enforcers and members of the administration of not resisting the repression and demanded trial of those who did not carry out their duties to protect the vulnerable.
It also blamed political parties for
not protecting the rights of the minorities.
Newspaper reports on repression of the minorities had been based on facts, but the government denied such incidents, said the commission.
The report put Christians and indigenous people next to Hindus as victims and painted Barisal, Bhola and Bagerhat as the hardest-hit.
The commission came up with a set of recommendations in its report and asked the government to form an independent national human rights commission without delay. It also urged revival of the constitution of 1972.
The commission examined newspaper reports, editorials and articles of major dailies published between September and December, 2001 and reports of seven non-governmental organisations working on human rights. Its report was also based on statements of 42 minority people, experiences of three journalists, and visits to several affected places.
Prof Anisuzzaman, Prof Musharraf Hossain, Prof Ajay Roy, Prof Hayat Mamud, Dr Kazi Khalequzzaman Ahmed, Ajay Roy and Ziauddin Tareq Ali attended the press conference.