Bangladesh Hindu Buddha Christian Oikya Parishad (BHBCOP) on Thursday demanded the government of formation of a national minority commission to find out the causes behind declining the percentage of minority people over the years.
“According to census, the percentage of minority people was 29.7 in 1947 but it is declined to only 9.7 per cent in 2011,” said Advocate Rana Das Gupta, general secretary of BHBCOP while addressing a press conference at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity.He called upon the government to take the problems of the minority people into special consideration and demanded formation of a separate ministry on minority affairs to quickly resolve the problems.
The BHBCOP leader regretted that none of state, politics and administration confesses the responsibility of continued attacks on minority people. Thus, he called upon the prime minister to hold the respective Members of Parliament (MPs) responsible for the attacks.
He also urged the political leaders to ensure that they would not give shelter those are involved in the communal attacks.
Gupta also demanded enacting a special law titled Bangladesh Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) to prevent communal violence.
“The state has to come forward to file cases in connection with attacks on minority people until the law will be enacted. We also demand to effectively apply the anti-terrorism act, the special power act and the speedy trial act in this regard,” he added.
He revealed that at least 4 people were killed, two women were violated, 452 homes of minority people, 246 business centres and 26 worships either were torched, smashed attacked or plundered in the previous one month since January 5 general election.
President of BHBCOP Usatan Talukder, MP, presidium member Kajal Deb Nath, Nirmol Kumar Chatterjee, Advocate Taposh Kumar Pal, Nirmol Rojario, and Advocate Swapan Kumar Roy, among others, were present on the occasion. – Staff Reporter
