Hindu monastery worker hacked to death in Bangladesh

NEW DELHI: After reciting all his morning shlokas and mantras, 70-year-old Ananda Gopal Ganguly , bowed before the multi-armed, lion-mounting Goddess Durga, walked out of the temple, climbed his bicycle and pedalled slowly through the paddy fields. The incense and the oil lamps might have been still burning in the sanctum sanctorum when three bikers blitz through, hit him with sharp-edged weapons and slit his throat, leaving his head barely hinged on the neck.Ganguly was hacked to death in a small village in southwestern Bangladesh on June 7. Two days later, another Hindu religious worker Nityananda Panday (60) was killed in almost the same manner early morning in front of a mental hospital. Bangladesh is caught in a spiral of violence targeted at religious minorities, following a spate of systemic attacks on atheist bloggers, secular activists and intellectuals that began last year. The priest’s beheadings, however, has triggered fresh fear psychosis and whisper talk about the arrival of the Islamic State (ISIS) and migration plans among the already dwindling Hindu minority in Bangladesh.“I don’t know whether it is ISIS or some other group decapitating Hindus but it is quite clear that this persecution is not the same as earlier. It is a new phenomenon,” Kajal Debnath who heads Bangladesh Hindu, Buddhist, Christian Unity Council (HBCUC) told TOI from Dhaka. “Earlier, they would rape Hindu girls or torch our temples and houses, forcing Hindus to abandon their properties and migrate to India. It was mostly about grabbing Hindu land and property. But now they are slaughtering ordinary landless poor Hindus with no social or economic standing and the message is entirely different,” he adds. A fresh wave of migration of Hindus out of Bangladesh, he fears, will start quietly.This time, the journey to an Indian passport will be easier following the Modi government's decision to amend laws to grant citizenship to Hindu refugees fleeing persecution.At the time of Indian Partition in 1947, Hindus constituted 31% of the total population of the region. B y 2011 Bangladesh census, their numbers came down to mere 8.5%. In 2001, as per the Indian Census, there over 3 million migrants from Bangladesh, out of which over 65% migrated during and soon after the liberation war that led to its creation in 1971. The Census estimated that 50 Bangladeshis migrated to India every day, through the 4096 km long porous border the two countries share. Dhaka based journalist Saleem Samad believes that Hindu population in Bangladesh may have declined sharply in the last five years.“Even though Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina elevated Hindus to prominent positions in her government, most Hindus remain marginalized and persecuted. There has been systemic discrimination and violence against them,” says Samad. Islamization of the country “gathered momentum during the military regimes of General Ziaur Rahman (1975-1981) and General H.M. Ershad (1982-1990),”says Samad adding that the general perception in Bangladeshi society as of now is that Hindus are infidels.Bangladeshi Hindus faced massive violence in 1992 after the Babri Masjid demolition in India. About 30,000 homes, offices and places of worship were destroyed. Hindus were attacked again under Khalida Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led coalition government with Islamist hardliners in 2001. The execution of Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) 1971 war criminal Delwar Hossain Sayeedi by the Sheikh Hasina government in provoked attacks oddly against Hindus. During the elections of 2014 that brought Awami League back to power for a third term, BNP and JeI student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS) workers committed large scale violence against them again.Targeted violence against minorities intensified in 2014 after al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), now called Ansar-ul-Islam (AuI), announced its arrival in 2014. Indian intelligence sources say it is behind the killings of most of the atheist bloggers and its recruits are drawn probably from JeI. As if that was not enough, Al Qaeda’s opponent, ISIS in Decemeber 2015 threatened to expand its area of operation to South Asia including Bangladesh.Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), sources say, is inching towards the IS because of “its dynamism and brand appeal.” Some Bangladeshis including Abu Jandal al-Bangali joined the IS in Syria and recently, Singapore arrested eight Bangladeshi IS activists. Since last year, both JMB and IS have intimidated Christians and Hindus. Three priests have escaped murder and three lost their lives.IS mouthpiece, an online magazine Dabiq in its 14th edition released recently, boasted about hacking priest Jogeshwar Roy to death. The magazine interviewed Shaykh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif, the IS chief in Bangladesh, who claimed that IS has “widespread support for their attacks on Hindus, Christians, Qadiyanis and other minorities.”Hindus of Bengal, the magazine said were relatively “deceptive and covert in showing their animosity towards Islam and Muslims” and many of the atheists were Hindus before. The IS chief also resented that many Hindus held important positions in the government under Awami league leader Sheikha Hasina whom it referred to as pro-India ‘kafir’. “Sharia in Bengal won’t be achieved until the local Hindus are targeted in mass numbers and until a state of polarization is created in the region,” Dabiq quoted the local IS chief.Sheikh Hasina government has however denied the role of AQIS and IS in violent attacks against minorities and persistently blamed the opposition party BNP and JeI. “The government must take responsibility. The Prime Minister must answer. Why is she is silent? Why has no one from the government bothered to visit the victim families?” asks Debnath adding that Sheikh Hasina was strengthening the extremist voices by her silence.“I don’t support the Indian government’s decision to accommodate Hindu refugees because it will open floodgates for our migration. But if these attacks continue at the present rate without any government intervention, Hindus will be reduced to mere 3% in another few years in Bangladesh,” says Debnath.