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Stopping use of religion in election campaigns urged

Staff Correspondent
With a few months left before the country goes into the next parliamentary election, minority community leaders yesterday urged the government, political parties, and the Election Commission to take steps for stopping the use of religion in electioneering.
They also sought measures to prevent communal attacks before and after the polls and ensure their security so that minorities could cast their votes without being intimidated.
Leaders of Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Oikya Parishad, a body of the country's religious minority communities, made these demands at press conference at the capital's Dhaka Reporters Unity.
Rana Dasgupta, general secretary of the parishad, said as the political parties had already started the election activities, religious and ethnic minorities grew anxious over the pre- and post-election situations.
The random use of religion in the campaign in five recent city corporation polls has intensified their fear and shattered their confidence further as they could not forget the communal attacks launched against them after the 2001 election.
"For the sake of democracy and the future of the country, these anxieties should be removed. We want assurance and visible initiatives from the government, all political parties and the Election Commission in this
regard before the election," he said.
He said the government had formed a judicial commission regarding the 2001 post-polls violence and the commission had submitted its report with recommendations but the government did not take initiatives for their implementation even after two years.
Minorities of Chittagong, Satkhira, Dinajpur and Ramu of Cox's Bazar were attacked in 2012 and the local administration, in many cases, "directly or indirectly instigated" these attacks, he claimed.
In many cases, the government compensated the victims but hardly was any culprit brought to book, he said, adding that minorities were also attacked after the war crimes verdicts.
He alleged that a vested quarter, especially the anti-liberation forces, was active to eliminate minorities from the country, like 1971 and its preceding era, using election as a tool.
The parishad's former general secretary Prof Neem Chandra Bhowmik demanded action against people using religion in politics.
The other demands include formation of a minority commission and a minority ministry and keeping 60 parliamentary seats reserved for minorities until “a real secular state" is established.
Bhikkhu Sunandapriya, Hubert Gomes, and Subrata Chowdhury were also present.