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WASHINGTON, D.C., May 20, 2004: U.S. congressman Frank Pallone, founder of the Congressional Caucus on India and the Indian Americans, has expressed his concern over the persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh. Speaking on Wednesday on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, he accused the Bangladesh government of unleashing “a campaign of terrorism, murder and religious cleansing” directed at the Hindu minority. Bangladesh is ruled by a coalition headed by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) which came to power in 2001. “I had written a letter to Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia in 2002 about this violent persecution, but I have received no response to date, and it is a fact that unabashed violence has continued freely,” said Pallone. “Although the latest wave of violence has been ensuing since BNP took power in 2001, Hindus have been a disappearing minority in Bangladesh at the hands of Bangladeshi forces who have employed human rights abuses, atrocities and ethno-religious cleansing tools,” he added. He said that in 1941, six years before India became independent, Hindus comprised 28 percent of the population in present day Bangladesh. By 1991 this had fallen to eight percent. A large part of this decrease could be attributed to the 1971 genocide by Pakistani forces when, he said, 2.5 million Hindus were murdered and 10 million fled to India as refugees. Pallone suggested a seven-point program to uphold pluralistic democracy in Bangladesh for the protection of Hindus and all minorities. Among these were: The restoration of secularism in the constitution of Bangladesh, as it existed in the first constitution of independent Bangladesh in 1972 and passage of affirmative action and hate crime laws that acknowledge the minority communities of Bangladesh.

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