Members of the Bangladeshi community took to the streets of Athens to celebrate the fall of the country’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, who left the country after a period of persistent and bloody protests spearheaded by Islamist groups.
The Bangladeshi community, along with KEERFA (Movement United Against Racism and the Fascist Threat) and the Socialist Workers’ Party in Greece (SEK), mobilised in Omonia and the surrounding streets on Tuesday afternoon to show support for the toppling of Hasina.
Ever since Hasina was forced to flee, images and videos have emerged of atrocities against the Hindu minority in Bangladesh, whose numbers have dangerously depleted over decades to the point of near extinction.
One viral video clip shows radical Islamists inspecting the genitals of a murdered man, possibly lynched to death, and expressing satisfaction on the confirmation he was Hindu due to being uncircumcised.
A particularly poignant graphic has been shared on X (formerly Twitter) by Radharamn Das, the vice-president and spokesperson of Iskcon Kolkata, depicting a human figure hanged till death superimposed on the national flag of Bangladesh, with a hashtag #SaveBangladeshiHindus.
News agency AFP quoted Rana Dasgupta, who leads an organisation representing minorities in Bangladesh, as saying that houses and shops of minority people were attacked, vandalised and looted in “at least 97 places on Monday and Tuesday” and “at least 10 Hindu temples” were assaulted by Monday.
Among the temples targeted, desecrated and burnt to cinders is the Iskcon temple in Meherpur, Khulna.
Spokesperson Yudhistir Govinda Das was quoted as saying in Indian media outlets that the deities of Lord Jagannath, Baladev, and Subhadra Devi were burnt, and three devotees somehow managed to escape.
The BBC reported, quoting Avirup Sarkar, a Bangladeshi Hindu, that mobs were making lists of Hindu properties to be attacked. Sarkar’s cousin lives in Netrokona, where a “mob of about 100 people, armed with sticks, stormed the house, smashing furniture, TV, bathroom fittings and doors. Before leaving, they took all the cash and jewellery…” They left with a warning that “You people are descendants of the Awami League! This country is in a bad shape because of you. You should leave the country.”
New York Times quoted Prionthi Chatterjee, a Hindu student in Dhaka, as saying that “Muslims had attacked her family at their home in the southern Bagerhat region, killing her father and leaving her mother with head injuries. ‘My father was an innocent teacher,’ she said in a phone interview, adding that her parents tried to call the army and the police for help but that no one responded.”
Reuters reported that 200-300 mainly Hindu homes and businesses had been vandalised since Monday, and 15-20 Hindu temples damaged. The nationwide vandalism and that caused destruction to numerous moments, statues, including that of founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, artefacts, and cultural institutions didn’t spare even noted personalities.