Minorities face persecution when AL assumes power: BNP

Minorities face persecution when AL assumes power: BNP

Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said on Tuesday that repressions against religious and ethnic minorities had started in the country during the Awami League rule just after the independence war.

While speaking at an online discussion organised by Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Welfare Front to mark the 8th anniversary of Ramu temple attack incident, Fakhrul also said that minorities face severe persecution when the AL take up power.

In September 29 and 30 in 2012, a series of attacks on Buddhist monasteries, shrines and houses were carried out at Ramu in Cox’s Bazar.

The violence later spread to Ukhiya in the district and nearby Patiya in Chittagong where Buddhist monasteries and other religious establishments were ransacked and centuryold manuscripts were torched. But no one was punished for the offence, he lamented.

Eighteen cases filed with three police stations in Cox’s Bazar in 2012 are still underway, he added.

Referring to the attacks at Ramu, Mirza Fakhrul said such attacks had increased in the country as the Awami League did not believe in democracy nor did they recognise the rights of the people.

The Awami League had imposed a fascist rule and seized the voting rights of people, Fakhrul said.

He called on the people to be united for formation of a national unity and to begin movements to end the fascist rule of Awami League.

BNP standing committee member Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury said that the Awami League in guise of its secular ideology persecuted the religious and ethnic minorities.

Another standing committee member Abdul Mayeen Khan said that the Buddhist community of Ramu faced serious repressions during Awami League rule.

Standing committee member of the party Gayeshwar Chandra Roy said that the trials of Ramu tragedy would be completed and the responsible would be punished if BNP comes in power.

Former Dhaka University teacher Sukomal Barua said that the Buddhists did not get justice of Ramu tragedy.

BNP vicepresident Nitai Roy Chowdhury called on the religious minorities to extend their support for establishing their rights.

Chaired by convener of the Welfare Front, Goutam Chakrabartty, central leaders of the party, Jayanta Kumar Kundu, Aparna Roy Das, Dipen Dewan, Debashish Roy, Sushil Barua, Nipun Roy Chowdhury, Litan Boidya and Amalendu Das Opu took part at the discussion.