June 2005
I. June 2, 2005. Chuarpur village, Kirtipur union, Naogaon district (in northwestern Bangladesh bordering the Indian state of West Bengal). Local Islamic reactionaries hanged a stolen Sitala image from the Kalitala Puja mandap constructed by the local Hindu community from a tree. The local administration has constructed a road, which has illegally encroached large sections of the land belonging to the local Hindu temple. Local Hindus are in great fear thinking that the local Islamic fundamentalist forces will illegally occupy all of the land of the temple in the nearby future.
II. June 6, 2005. Mulpani village, Ujibpur sub-district, Barishal district (in southern Bangladesh near the Bay of Bengal). Local Islamic militants attacked the homes of two local Hindus named Mukunda Biswas and Shyamalal Biswas. The group looted valuables worth in excess of 300,000 Taka (approximately US $5,000).
III. June 7, 2005. Mirakathi village, Jhalkathi sub-district, Barishal district (in southern Bangladesh near the Bay of Bengal). Islamic fundamentalists attacked the home of a local Hindu named Premankh Edbar and looted valuables worth in excess of 300,000 Taka (approximately US $5,000).
IV. June 8, 2005. Ratal Bazar, Singhra sub-district, Natore district (in western Bangladesh near the Indian state of West Bengal). Five shops owned by members of the local tribal Hindu community were looted and destroyed at Ratal Bazar by a group of Islamic zealots. The Singhra police station did not feel it was necessary to file a case. The group of Islamic radicals is known as Rashid’s group tried to occupy the seven acres of land of a Hindu tribal named Jitendranath Tappo. When members of the tribal community protested against the group, the group went away. The group came back at noon and attacked the shops of Jiten’s relatives: Nabin, Paresh, Sukumar, Prafulla and Nepal.
V. June 16, 2005. Kustia district (in western Bangladesh bordering the Indian state of West Bengal). A house was constructed on the land belonging to a local Hindu temple in defiance of an order issued by the court at Kumarkhali. On May 19, Islamic fundamentalists from Khaerchara village named Samsujjaman Dira, Md. Abdul Khalek Mondal, Md. Ibrahim, and Md. Manick began construction of a house on the land of a the Hindu Matri Temple. When local Hindus protested, the group threatened to burn all of them alive.
VI. June 16, 2005. Usaher Hatra village, Mohanpur sub-district, Rajsahi district (in western Bangladesh bordering the Indian state of West Bengal). Twenty Hindus were injured by police and Islamic fundamentalists when they were protesting the attack by Islamic reactionaries on the family of a local Hindu named Mantu Sarkar. The attacked took place at six o’clock in the evening on May 23. The procession started at five o’clock in the evening from Hatra market. The police barricaded the procession when it reached the Kesharhat Degree College. Afterwards, the police attack the procession. Local Islamic reactionaries in league with the local police also attacked the Hindus; twenty people were seriously injured in the attack. According to witnesses, the superintendent of the Mohanpur police station also a prominent Islamic fundamentalist named Belal Hussain directed the attack on the protest.
Undated Incidents:
Kantanagar village, Kalam area, Pingra sub-district, Natore district (in western Bangladesh near the Indian state of West Bengal). Islamic fundamentalists attacked a local Hindu named Bimal Sarkar. They also forced him to flee the country. Bimal with his family took shelter at a village in South Dinajpur in India at present. The Indian Government has been trying to push him back into Bangladesh but so far he has resisted deportation saying that “It is better to die in India by a bullet than to suffer in Bangladesh.”
Madaripur district (south of Dhaka district). The headmistress of Sahid Sarkar Sajhan Girl’s School in Madaripur named Mrs. Usharani Biswas lost her job due to being a Hindu.
Kamarpur village, Keshabpur sub-district, Jessore district (in southwestern Bangladesh bordering the Indian state of West Bengal). Local police stopped the annual meeting of the Ramanand Sebashram of the Hindu community. When the local leader of the Islamic fundamentalist Jamiat Islamia led a protest against the Hindu meeting, the local police superintendent gave permission for that.
Simuljhuri village, Badargunj sub-district, Rangamati district (in southeast Bangladesh near the Indian states of Tripura and Mizoram). Islamic fundamentalists kidnapped a tribal woman and killed her after gang-raping her. The local police have done nothing to arrest those resonsible.
Dhaka district (capital of Bangladesh). Islamic reactionaries threatened a Hindu woman named Chayarani Das and her family. Das is a worker for the Bangladesh Human Rights Review Society at Saver area in Dhaka.
Chalkpara (Santal Para), Birampur sub-district, Dinajpur district (in northern Bangladesh bordering the Indian state of West Bengal). A group of Islamic reactionaries destroyed the house of a Hindu named Khitish Das and looted all of his belongings.
Palima village, Kalihati sub-district, Tangail district (proximately north of the capital of Dhaka). Islamic reactionaries kidnapped the thirteen year old of a Hindu named Ajit Kumar Das. The local police have been unable to find the girl as of press time.
Tetla village, Banari para sub-district, Barishal district (in southern Bangladesh near the Bay of Bengal). Islamic fundamentalists demanded 50,000 Taka (approximately US $850) in the form of a ziziya tax (an extortion tax) from a Hindu teacher named Mr. Sukhranjan Boral. The group threatened Boral’s family when he filed a case against them. In a tragic irony, most of those in the group were once his students.
Puradanga village, Panchgarh sadar sub-district. A group of Islamic fundamentalists including Md. Golam Rabbani, Usuf Ali, Abul Hossain, Anichur Rahman, Habibur Rahman, Shahjahan Ali, Jahangir, Rubel, Basirul plundered all the crops on the acre farm plot of Paisanju Barman, a local Hindu resident of the area.
Nicher Pulipara, Naniarchar area, Rangamati district (in southeast Bangladesh near the Indian states of Tripura and Mizoram). Recently released Muslim prisoners ransacked all of the grown fruit belonging to the tribal Buddhist Chakma community with the help of the local police.
Boalia village, Babugunj sub-district, Barishal district (in southern Bangladesh near the Bay of Bengal). Islamic reactionaries seriously injured Mr. Asim Halder, a local Hindu, when he went to the local police about the group’s attempts to take away his cattle.