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LAW LETTER

Minorities under threat
A world dominated by the majority, where individuals while voicing out their concerns to reach a bigger forum only face scorning disapprovals one after another, breeds nothing but hatred, that further gives rise to injustice; oppression and hate crimes altogether. As long as something is not directly affecting civil life negatively and the society collectively remains free from chaos, it does not matter if a segment of that society is trumped with the same injustice. This is why those who stand up for suppressed minorities often get their spirits crushed and face similar oppositions from the suppressors alongside ignorant denials from a big chunk of people while seeking support for their cause.
A report by Odhikar reveals that from 2007 up to March 2016, a total of3573 cases of repression against religious minorities have been reported in Bangladesh. They were injured, assaulted, arrested, abducted, looted, raped and killed; their temples and properties were attacked and their lands and houses were grabbed. However, these are just documented cases while many more went unattended. A good number of atheist bloggers were also murdered for having different views in the last two years. Sadly, no laws have been passed for curbing such communal violence against minorities and there is no precedence of fixed penalty to tackle these sensitive cases.
On October 31,2016, at least fifteen temples were destroyed by an unruly mob of hundreds of people with more than 100 injured in the Hindu community of Nasimagar, Brahmanbaria in response to ridiculing Masjid-al-Haram on Facebook. This is a clear reflection of unfathomable religious intolerance prevailing in Bangladesh. Afterwards, police took control of the situation of law and order of the area and launched a raid to apprehend the culprits.
Nonetheless, another attack was
launched that same week (November 03,2016) where the perpetrators wanted to set five houses of two villages on fire. On November 6,2016, unruly locals, with the help of corrupt people of the local administration killed two tribesmen of Santal origin in Gobindapur of Gaibandha. They also vandalised movable and immovable properties of thousands of Santals.
These incidents have exposed the old blame-game policy of the administration, political parties and law enforcement agencies once again. The negligence of the concerned authorities, the apathy of the people towards minorities, the growing state of religious intolerance etc. are all to be blamed for these attacks.
Often, it has been observed in Bangladesh that being, thinking or even looking, different than the rest makes one subjeato physical and mental torment. This has obviously been the case worldwide throughout the history, as seen from the conditions of the Shias in Sunni-governed countries or the Pashtuns in Afghanistan or the aborigines in Australia.
All the stakeholders need to play a proactive role for ensuring peace among the mass people and the minorities. The political parties should come out of their old blame-game mentality and take measures to ensure the security and wellbeing as well as peaceful coexistence of the minorities in the society. The law enforcement agencies should remain neutral in this regard and ensure that all perpetrators of such violence are brought to book. Finally, all responsible citizens of Bangladesh should shun such incidents and embrace the ideas of religious tolerance, difference in thoughts and respea this diversity among people to live in a truly pluralistic country.
Ali Mashraf & Nabila Rubaiyat Students of Law, University of Dhaka