WASHINGTON, D.C., November 21, 2013 (Hindu American Foundation): Persecution of Hindus and religious minorities in Bangladesh took center stage at a Congressional hearing entitled Bangladesh in Turmoil: A Nation on the Brink, hosted by the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific yesterday. Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), Chairman of the House Foreign Affair Committee, and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), who served as the acting Ranking Member of the hearing, peppered witnesses with questions about concerns over growing radicalization and recent violence targeting Bangladesh’s Hindu population.
“I am particularly concerned over issues…regarding religious freedom and specifically over attacks on the minority Hindu community remaining in Bangladesh today,” said Rep. Gabbard. “I think it’s unfortunate that sometimes perpetrators of crimes against this community go unpunished, and it’s up to the Government of Bangladesh to act authoritatively against those who incite and commit violence against anyone and protect the rights of all minorities.”
While noting that the majority of the population in Bangladesh had no role in violence against minorities, Chairman Royce drew a parallel to Pakistan in expressing concern over the growing radicalization of young men being educated in Islamist schools. “Unless the State in Bangladesh is ready to come forward and close these particular Deobandi schools, the ones that have been identified as the most radical, the ones that are telling their charges, their graduates to go out and commit this kind of violence…[Bangladesh, like Pakistan,] are going down roads here where the consequences will eventually engulf the state itself,” said Chairman Royce.
“While we were initially concerned by the lack of Hindu or any minority representation on the witness panel, we’re pleased that the plight of Bangladeshi Hindus as well as other religious minorities became the central theme of the hearing,” said Samir Kalra, Esq., HAF’s Senior Human Rights Fellow. “We appreciate Chairman Royce, Rep. Gabbard, and Rep. Sherman for being vocal critics of the violence being perpetrated against innocent minority populations in Bangladesh.”