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Attacks on Hindus

Preventing recurrence requires empowerment of local government

Eminent human rights activists tell Governance Advocacy Forum discussion

Staff Correspondent
The government must empower local government bodies, like union parishads, to prevent recurrence of the recent brutal violence perpetrated on Hindus and other religious minorities, said eminent human rights activists at a discussion yesterday.
Simultaneously, Bangladesh's politics must be purged of Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir, said Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, chairperson of Governance Advocacy Forum, a coalition of
36 non-government organisations.
The forum organised the discussion on violence, peace, democracy and local government in the capital's Jatiya Press Club.
Local government institutions, empowered with financial and administrative capacities, are necessary in today's context as they can forge solidarity among the locals irrespective of caste and creed to stand against communal violence, he said.
Hindus, in the face of recent postelection brutal attacks, appeared as captives in an independent country, added Kholiquzzaman, also Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation chairman.
Shaheen Anam, executive director of Manusher Jonno Foundation, said the violence could have been averted had the local government bodies been in place, accordingly empowered and prepared.
Successive governments did not strengthen the local government bodies despite declaring electoral pledges in this regard, she said.
The attacks are acts of those defeated in the Liberation War and it is deeply regrettable that no government has yet brought the perpetrators to book, she said.
Sultana Kamal, executive director of Ain o Salish Kendra, said the perpetrators were inspired each time they committed the heinous crimes as they were able to
get away without being tried and punished.
Thanks to corrupt politics, people's aspirations for secularism, dignity and economic and social emancipation, based on which Bangladesh waged the Liberation War, has not been instilled in today's young generation, she said.
Associate Prof Kazi Maruful Islam of Dhaka University said the most damaging fact for Bangladesh is that Hindus suffered human rights violations and lost trust on politics and people.
Moderating the discussion, the forum Coordinator Mohsin Ali in a keynote presentation said government action in tackling the recent communal violence, amidst inadequate capacity of the local administration, was in disarray.
It remains a question as to how far the government was prepared to face it, he said.