NEW DELHI: Hindu American groups flew a massive airline banner in New York that said ‘stop violence on Bangladeshi Hindus.’ The large banner circled the Statue of Liberty as it flew over the Hudson River.
This comes after recent reports of targeted violence, systematic impoverishment, lynchings, kidnappings of minor girls and forced job resignations affecting up to 200,000 Hindus as Bangladesh dealt with a political upheavel that led to the fall and ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on August 5, 2024, after which there have been around 250 verified attacks and over 1,000 reported incidents.
Bangladesh Hindu Community member Sitangshu Guha told ANI, “Hindus in Bangladesh are on the verge of extinction. Hopefully, this will raise awareness among the civilised world and prompt the UN to take action to save the victims of militant Islamic forces in Bangladesh. If Bangladesh becomes Hindu-free, it will become Afghanistan 2.0, and militants will spread to neighbouring India and other parts of the world, including the West. This is everyone’s problem.”
Pankaj Mehta, member of the Interfaith Human Rights Coalition who helped organize the event, added, “It is time for the UN Human Rights Council to put aside politics and officially recognise the 1971 Bangladesh genocide, the largest genocide since World War II. Three US-based organisations–The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, Genocide Watch, and the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience–have already recognised the atrocities committed by Pakistani occupation forces and their Islamist allies in 1971 as genocide, primarily targeting the Hindu minority. The UN must follow suit and take steps to prevent another looming genocide.”