Bangladesh: Attacks on minorities were ‘politically motivated’

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s interim government has once again attempted to downplay the attacks on minority communities, particularly Hindus, by framing them as “politically motivated” rather than communally driven. Despite widespread evidence to the contrary, officials insist that the majority of these incidents are rooted in political agendas, not religious intolerance.
According to a police report released on Saturday, 115 cases related to complaints of communal attacks have been registered since August 2024, in which at least 100 people have been arrested.
The Bangladesh Hindu Buddha Christian Unity Council claimed that 1,769 “communal attacks” and “acts of vandalism” took place against minorities in the Muslim-dominated nation. The attacks, vandalism and looting included 2,010 incidents on the lives, properties, and places of worship of the minority communities, it said.
The police investigation, however, has revealed that 1,234 incidents were “political in nature” and only 20 were communal, said the chief adviser Muhammad Yunus’s press wing officials who shared the police report. At least 161 claims were found to be false or untrue, said the report.
In a bid to alley fear among the minorities the government reiterated its zero-tolerance policy towards any communal attacks in the country, stressing police have been ordered to arrest the culprits.
The government has also announced that it will compensate the victims.