Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Forgotten Injuries Bangladesh Hindu- Buddhists


I lived in Pernasree Kolkata in 2010 January. Landlady an old woman, she was alone. Her son lived in USA, husband had died. She said they had hundreds of acres of farmland, mango orchid, but when the killings started she and her husband left everything, came barehand to Kolkata.  

Some Facts on 1971 Genocide


On the night of 25 March 1971 the Pakistani Army launched Operation Searchlight. About 34 students were killed in the dormitories of Dhaka University. Neighbourhoods of old Dhaka which had a majority Hindu population were also attacked. Robert Payne, an American journalist, estimated that 7,000 people had been killed and 3,000 arrested in that night. The Pakistani Army demolished Ramna Kali Mandir (temple) and killed 85 Hindus.

West Pakistani journalist Anthony Mascarenhas in The Sunday Times, London on 13 June 1971 titled "Genocide":  "I saw Hindus, hunted from village to village and door to door, shot off-hand after a cursory 'short-arm inspection' showed they were uncircumcised. I have heard the screams of men bludgeoned to death in the compound of the Circuit House (civil administrative headquarters) in Comilla. I have seen truckloads of other human targets and those who had the humanity to try to help them hauled off 'for disposal' under the cover of darkness and curfew."

Mascarenhas, Anthony (13 June 1971). "Genocide". The Times. London. The Government's policy for East Bengal was spelled out to me in the Eastern Command headquarters at Dacca. It has three elements: 1. The Bengalis have proved themselves unreliable and must be ruled by West Pakistanis; 2. The Bengalis will have to be re-educated along proper Islamic lines. The – Islamization of the masses – this is the official jargon – is intended to eliminate secessionist tendencies and provide a strong religious bond with West Pakistan; 3. When the Hindus have been eliminated by death and flight, their property will be used as a golden carrot to win over the under privileged Muslim middle-class. This will provide the base for erecting administrative and political structures in the future.

Archer K. Blood, American diplomat wrote in the Blood Telegram: "with support of the Pak military, non-Bengali Muslims are systematically attacking poor people's quarters and murdering Bengalis and Hindus."

During the war, a fatwa in Pakistan declared that the Bengali freedom fighters were Hindus and that their women could be taken as the 'booty of war'. Imams and Muslim religious leaders publicly declared that the Bengali women were 'gonimoter maal' (war booty) and thus they openly supported the rape of Bengali women by the Pakistani Army. 

An article in Time magazine dated 2 August 1971, stated "The Hindus, who account for three-fourths of the refugees and a majority of the dead, have borne the brunt of the Muslim military hatred." Pakistan army eastern command headquarter officials in Dhaka made clear the government's policy on East Bengal. After the elimination or exile of Hindus, their property was going to be shared among middle class Muslims. According to Colonel Naim Hindus "undermined the Muslim masses." He said Bengali culture to a great extent was Hindu culture and "We have to sort them out to restore the land to the people." On April 1971 at Comilla a  Major said to Anthony Mascarenhas on Hindus: "Now under the cover of fighting we have an excellent opportunity of finishing them off...Of course, we are only killing the Hindu men. We are soldiers, not cowards like the rebels." Hindus were alleged to have corrupted the Awami League. Pakistani soldiers repeatedly boasted that they have came "to kill Hindus" to US Consul Archer Blood. A witness heard an officer shouting to soldiers: "Why you have killed Muslims. We ordered you to kill only Hindus." US government cables noted that the minorities of Bangladesh, especially the Hindus, were specific targets of the Pakistani Army. 

US consulates reported methodical slaughter of Hindu men in cities starting in the first 24 hours of the crackdown. Army units entered villages asking where Hindus live; it was "common pattern" to kill Hindu males. Hindus were identified because they were not circumcised. Sometimes the military also massacred Hindu women. There were barely any areas where no Hindu was killed. There was widespread killing of Hindu males, and rapes of women. Documented incidents in which Hindus were massacred in large numbers include the Jathibhanga massacre, the Chuknagar massacre, and the Shankharipara massacre.

Senator Edward Kennedy wrote in a report that was part of United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations testimony dated 1 November 1971, "Hardest hit have been members of the Hindu community who have been robbed of their lands and shops, systematically slaughtered, and in some places, painted with yellow patches marked "H". All of this has been officially sanctioned, ordered and implemented under martial law from Islamabad". More than 60% of the Bengali refugees who fled to India were Hindus. It has been alleged that this widespread violence against Hindus was motivated by a policy to purge East Pakistan of what was seen as Hindu and Indian influences. Buddhist temples and Buddhist monks were also attacked through the course of the year. Lt. Colonel Aziz Ahmed Khan reported that in May 1971 there was written order to kill Hindus and that General Niazi would ask troops how many Hindus they had killed.

According to R. J. Rummel, professor of political science at the University of Hawaii,

The genocide and gendercidal atrocities were also perpetrated by lower-ranking officers and ordinary soldiers. These "willing executioners" were fueled by an abiding anti-Bengali racism, especially against the Hindu minority. "Bengalis were often compared with monkeys and chickens. Said General Niazi, 'It was a low lying land of low lying people.' The Hindus among the Bengalis were as Jews to the Nazis: scum and vermin that best be exterminated. As to the Moslem Bengalis, they were to live only on the sufferance of the soldiers: any infraction, any suspicion cast on them, any need for reprisal, could mean their death. And the soldiers were free to kill at will. The journalist Dan Coggin quoted one Pakistani captain as telling him, "We can kill anyone for anything. We are accountable to no one." 

The Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Sydney Schanberg covered the start of the war and wrote extensively on the suffering of the East Bengalis, including the Hindus both during and after the conflict. In a syndicated column "The Pakistani Slaughter That Nixon Ignored", he wrote about his return to liberated Bangladesh in 1972. "Other reminders were the yellow "H"s the Pakistanis had painted on the homes of Hindus, particular targets of the Muslim army". Bangladesh reported massacres occurring on daily basis. One priest reported to Schanberg about the slaughter of over thousand Hindus in southern district of Barisal in one day. According to another priest, meeting was called in northeastern Sylhet district. Later troops arrived and from the gathered crowd selected 300 Hindus and shot them dead.

Rudolph Rummel wrote "In 1971, the self-appointed president of Pakistan and commander-in-chief of the army General Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan and his top generals prepared a careful and systematic military, economic, and political operation against East Pakistan. They planned to murder that country's Bengali intellectual, cultural, and political elite. They planned to indiscriminately murder hundreds of thousands of its Hindus and drive the rest into India. 


Aftermath

As Hindus escaped to India fleeing the Pakistani pogrom, a significant section of Bengali Muslims not only looted their belongings but found it convenient to take their land away as well. Hindus leaving for India would often leave their lands in Muslim custody. While many were returned, many weren’t and it’s this appropriated property syndrome that made one of the strongest material reasons for many people to turn anti-Hindu. It was a case of collective theft. Prof. Abul Barkat did a pioneering study on the issue. Here is what he says in summary.

Forty per cent of Hindu families in Bangladesh have been affected by the Enemy Property Act. This included nearly 750,000 families dispossessed of agricultural land. The total amount of land lost by Hindu households as a result was estimated at 1.64 million acres which is equivalent to 53 per cent of the total land owned by the Hindu community and 5.3 per cent of the total land area of Bangladesh.

The greatest appropriation of Hindu property took place immediately after independence during the first Awami League government (1972–75) and during the first period of rule of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (1976-1980).  Since 1948, 75 per cent of the land of religious minorities in East Pakistan and subsequent Bangladesh had been confiscated through the provisions of the Act.

It means that whoever is in power abuses Hindus and that includes the Awami League, the largest beneficiary of Hindu property takeover. If Hindus are 8 per cent of the population, they are almost zero as part of the ruling class. Almost no Hindu ever reaches the elite level which runs Bangladesh. So though are the largest minority, they have no spokesperson and no organization. But then if they do, they would immediately be targeted as a treacherous outfit so they are left with no option but to hang on to the AL coattail. 

Durga Puja 2021

80 Hindu temples were attacked by Muslim mobs in Bangladesh 13 October 2021 during Navratri. 3 Hindus were killed, 150 injured on Wednesday. 

https://www.firstpost.com/world/bangladesh-goons-attack-hindu-temples-during-durga-puja-celebrations-three-killed-paramilitary-deployed-10055401.html

Doctored photo of Quran being kept in Pandal was circulated on social media. The guy who entered into Pandal and did some stuff was Iqbal Hossein, identified by CCTV camera footage. Bangladesh Home Minister also said attacks on Hindus were preplanned. 


And mobs came out to burn temples pandals instantly. Well there will always be some one who will put some doctored image, whose duty is it to ascertain it? But they don't want to ascertain, they just want to attack. Why would Hindus do it, when they are permanently under fear for life and property. Muslims never need any proof. In-spite of attack on temples tens of thousand times, there has not been any retaliation by attacking any mosque ever in Bangladesh. But one can't stop others from accusing falsely and burning. They made thousands of videos while burning temples, etc, where is a single video of any Hindu doing anything against Islam?  

Three people were killed in a ISKCON temple attack 15 October 2021. 

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/2-hindu-men-killed-in-fresh-violence-in-bangladesh-2577450

 Among them is this ISKCON guy. 

https://iskconnews.org/hg-partha-das-killed-at-iskcon-bangladesh,8039/?fbclid=IwAR1KoKtJVd-jslSCPwwk0Z7jqi6kpF0jzMJU9ZWgN49xK_YXwwkBCWdnDe4

Entire Hindu family was gang raped, mother, daughter, 10 year old niece who died in hospital. 

https://www.opindia.com/2021/10/bangladesh-blogger-reveals-gang-rape-of-entire-hindu-family-by-islamists/

A lot of this is result of Hinduphobia, BJP RSS hatred spread by media. This is not the first time ISKCON temple have been attacked. Tulsi Gabbard spoke about it in one of her speeches. And yet one Muslim guy Kalim Ullah in ship (from Hyderabad) was telling, ISKCON logo ko ekdam brainwash karta hai. bla bla. Who is brainwashed? 

They burned entire shop consisting of hundreds of Bhgwad Geeta copies, Photos of deity, puja samagri, Srila Prabhupada statue and temple, stamped over copies of Bhagwad Gita, pics of Sri Krishna. That did not offend any Hindu to become excuse of revenge, but Muslims evoke imaginary grievances (e.g. some xyz said something on a FB post) and then they do 100 times more of aforesaid. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcn_ji_5x8g

Anti Hindu riots spread 22 of 64 districts. Whole Muslim world kept silent. Whole non Muslim world kept silent. Jamat E Islami Bangladesh behind attack on Hindus, and yet in India Jamat E Islami whoch is a global organization in concept, did not say a word, and yet our leaders flock for support from Jamat E Islami. Hindus kept calling to police when Iskcon temple was attacked, police did not come. 

Attack on Hindus continued today on 5th Day (17th Oct 21). 20 Hindu homes burned down, and 65 houses torched in Rangpur. Hindus in Bangladesh have called for countrywide hunger strike. No country, no western university, no intellectual group in India has shown any concern. Nobody returned their prizes. No politician spoke anything. 

Twitter closed ISKCON Bangladesh and Bangladesh Hindu Unity Council handles. No politician in India or WB spoke. Offcourse non of the Liberals and universities and lawmakers in west spoke, except Tulsi Gabbard. Most of the world leaders would give tall speeches and run expensive ad campaigns for islamophobia if a Muslim was even denied coffee at Starbucks. But when other communities are outright killed and raped, it doesn't matter. 


There was protest and Bandh in Tripura in October end, when March reached a Muslim dominated area, they started stone pelting to which Hindus retaliated, three houses and some shop were damaged. A band was called in Maharashtra on Friday 12 November by Muslim organizations, after Jumma namaz hordes of Muslims came out, violence breaks out in Nanded, Malegaon; 7 policemen including additional SP injured, more than 25 shops (of Hindus only) were vandalized during in Amravati, shops attacked in Malegaon. Notice these people remained silent on large scale violence against Hindus in Bangladesh but rioted on very small incidents in Tripura. Nothing happened to Raza academy, but police lathi charged Hindus. It was a reminder of 2012 riots, when Muslims burned and attacked police killing 2 injuring 40 policemen in Aazad Maidan Mumbai, during some protest organized by same Raza Academy for Rohangia's in Myanmar. Congress ShivSena govt justified the violence as reaction to Tripura. 



Fake incidents were circulated about Tripura on social media ‘Humanity Under Attack in Tripura #Muslim Lives Matter’...after which FIR was filed against 102 social media accounts. The single FIR which names 102 accounts including those of Indian and international journalists like Shyam Meera Singh, Aarif Shah and C.J. Werleman, reads, “These accounts published fabricated posts, commentary, statements for promoting enmity between religious groups and communities to cause breach of public peace. The rumours spread by them are intended to cause harm to the reputation of Tripura Police and the Government of Tripura in presence of a criminal conspiracy.” 

On the other hand attack on Hindus in Tripura, one ABVP leader stabbed, and Kali temple idol destroyed, did not gain any sympathy.



Complete account

When was it that Muslims protested against what happened in Kashmir, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen?  Why do they burn Hindus shops when something happens in France? 

10 Dec 2021, Bihar: Teacher Sadaf Jahan threw Shrimad Bhagwad Gita in dustbin, abused Hindu Gods and Goddesses, class four student says. https://www.opindia.com/2021/12/bihar-gaya-teacher-bhagwad-gita-dustbin/ Did Hindus or any Hindu group or RSS called for beheading or any violence? 

At Kendriya Vidyalaya in Bihar:
1. Child's Gita thrown into dustbin by teacher.
2. Teacher says Hindu Gods and Goddesses are kutta and kutti (dogs, bitches).
3. Teacher has Ganesha drawing on her slippers.
4. @bihar_police SHO refuses to file FIR.
5. Child was pushed violently against the blackboard.
6. Teacher threatened child she would skin him alive if he told anyone about the incident.
7. Parents went to meet the SSP, who said find another school.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Six brothers from a Hindu family killed by a van in an intentional attack in Banngladesh. They wanted to build a temple in village, which had caused attack by Muslim mobs before as well. 
It was only given in some corner news on third page in India. 
No debates, no anger. Most people don't even know about it. Because it was not covered widely. 
Because it doesn't suit the narrative of nice people in media etc. 



Nov 2022

Guy sitting next to me (Santanu M) in my office, one of his friends came from Bangladesh. 
He is telling Hindus are not safe there, anytime a mob can form and attack their house. They are not safe to walk outside...
Anyone takes mangoes from their tree, they can't oppose. 
His friends sister was travelling in bus, and people shorn hand (triceps) with razor blade because she was wearing small sleeve cloth. 
They (Muslims) said this is not acceptable, you can't wear like this. 

Dec 1, 2022


The group of Marwari people with some Bengalis, numbered around 450, caught a glimmer of hope thinking that their ordeal under the government of Pakistan on their eastern wing (then East Pakistan and now Bangladesh) was coming to an end.

As announced on loudspeakers that they had to board the last train back home to India, they got on it past midnight from Saidpur in Nilphamari, where they had settled for business over the years.

The train, believed to be heading for Jalpaiguri in West Bengal through the Chilahati border, rolled on slowly and came to a halt near railway culvert No. 338 in the Golahat area, only two kilometers away from where they had started. All the compartments were shut from the outside. Peeping through a hole, they could see Muslim Biharis, equipped with weapons, and Pakistan armymen, who would soon butcher them to death.

All hell broke loose as women, who had been put in a separate compartment, were whisked outside the train and swooped on by the captors like a pack of wolves. The apprehension ran so deep through every cell of the victims’ relatives that none could utter a single word.

Men, who pleaded to be shot instead of being hacked, were stabbed indiscriminately. Their request was reciprocated with hostile words from the occupation army that Pakistan’s bullets were not so cheap to be wasted on them.

Before that night of June 6 in 1971, the Marwari community was gripped by horror as over a hundred men among them had been picked up by the Pakistan Army to construct an airport. They were whipped like middle-age barbarians to toil day in and day out.

The genocide, orchestrated and masterminded by Pakistan, began on the night of March 25, 1971. The horror intensified further and the deception method, employed by the Pakistan Army to kill them, worked as planned.

Village of widows, Sherpur


They killed 164 men and raped many women at the village on July 25, 1971. Only 57 women survived, only to live out life as widows. After that day, Sohagpur was to be known as Bidhoba Palli, a village of widows.