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NDTV
2 hours ago
- Politics
- NDTV
Bangladeshi Hindu Homes Attacked And Looted After Teen's Derogatory Post On Prophet Muhammad
In an alarming incident, a 17-year-old boy's Facebook post on Prophet Muhammad has caused waves of violent mob attacks in Bangladesh's Rangpur district. 15 Hindu homes were attacked in a span of two days – Saturday and Sunday, after which families left their homes, sold off livestock and belongings in distress. The ransacking took place after the boy's arrest over blasphemy. Moreover, army and police were deployed to disperse the rampaging crowd. This incident has sparked anxiety among the Hindu community after their homes were burnt and as they have to take shelter with relatives and are still unsure about when they can even return home. The attacks took place in Aldadpur village after the boy – a third-semester student at a polytechnic institute – posted derogatory content about Prophet Muhammad on Facebook. Despite the widespread violence and protests, there had been no FIR or arrests made. According to The Daily Star, the boy was arrested around 8:30 pm on Saturday evening after police received complaints about the post. "A case was filed under the Cybersecurity Act, and the boy was later sent to a juvenile rehabilitation centre following a court order," a police officer, Al Emran, told Dhaka-based newspaper, Prothom Alo. After his arrest, the violence started, following which the police and army were deployed. "Fifteen houses were damaged or looted. We are preparing a list and working on financial and other forms of support," an official, Mahmud Hasan Mridha, said after visiting the village. "We didn't sleep all night," Kamalakanta Roy, a villager, told Prothom Alo. "We had 10–12 mon (400–480 kg) of paddy, and we're selling it now." Apart from the destruction, valuables were looted. Locals said gold jewellery, legal documents had been looted. This violence falls under a pattern of persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh, since PM Sheikh Hasina's government was ousted. Although the interim government has taken steps to curb such attacks on minorities, Muhammad Yunus, had earlier called these reports "exaggerated propaganda". Per India's Ministry of External Affairs, after Hasina was ousted in August 2024, Bangladesh witnessed a sharp escalation of violence against Hindus. There had been 200 cases of attacks across 52 districts within the first week. By October 22, the interim government had officially acknowledged 88 cases of communal violence against Hindus. National Citizen Party (NCP) Convener Nahid Islam condemned the attacks and said that no one should be spared for insulting the Prophet, but "justice must follow the law." "Three families, including that of the detained boy and his uncle, are staying at their relatives' homes at a neighbouring village," the chief adviser's office said. "The repair works of the Hindu households will start from Tuesday under the supervision of the district and concerned sub-district administrations," it said in a statement.
New Straits Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- New Straits Times
Nurul Izzah pays tribute to Bangladesh's July Revolution at Dhaka conference
NEW DELHI: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) deputy president Nurul Izzah Anwar on Sunday paid tribute to the 2024 student-led uprising in Bangladesh as a quest for sovereignty and dignity. Bangladesh is holding a series of events to mark the first anniversary of the fall of Sheikh Hasina's nearly 16-year rule as a result of what has become known as the July Revolution. She said the events of last year were not just a protest but became an avenue for the rebirth of the nation's spirit. "At the end of the day, any regime, no matter how powerful, cannot stand against the will of an awakened people," Nurul Izzah said. Hasina resigned and fled to India on August 5 as protests mounted against her rule across Bangladesh. Nurul Izzah said the July Revolution is a reminder that "stability without justice is fragile." She also referred to the ongoing genocide by Israel in Gaza in her speech, which covered wide-ranging topics such as democratic and political reforms, her own struggles, youth activism and economic empowerment. Nurul Izzah said the "enabling of the genocidal onslaught in Gaza by the hegemons and their ilk reminds us of the need to reaffirm our solidarity." She spoke alongside international and Bangladeshi speakers at the first International Conference on the July Revolution, organised by the Dhaka-based think tank Research and Integrated Thought (RIT) and Dhaka University's Department of Political Science. Yasin Aktay, a senior member of Turkiye's Justice and Development Party (AK Party), hailed the July Revolution as an event that represented an uprising against local authoritarianism and its foreign backers. The Bangladesh interim government's housing and public works adviser Adilur Rahman Khan said the deposed Hasina regime had made the state machinery a weapon of her Awami League party, and enforced disappearances and killings of dissidents became routine. – Bernama
Barnama
2 days ago
- Politics
- Barnama
Nurul Izzah Pays Tribute To Bangladesh's July Revolution At Dhaka Conference
WORLD NEW DELHI, July 27 (Bernama) -- Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) deputy president Nurul Izzah Anwar on Sunday paid tribute to the 2024 student-led uprising in Bangladesh as a quest for sovereignty and dignity. Bangladesh is holding a series of events to mark the first anniversary of the fall of Sheikh Hasina's nearly 16-year rule as a result of what has become known as the July Revolution. She said the events of last year were not just a protest but became an avenue for the rebirth of the nation's spirit. "At the end of the day, any regime, no matter how powerful, cannot stand against the will of an awakened people," Nurul Izzah said. Hasina resigned and fled to India on August 5 as protests mounted against her rule across Bangladesh. Nurul Izzah said the July Revolution is a reminder that "stability without justice is fragile." She also referred to the ongoing genocide by Israel in Gaza in her speech, which covered wide-ranging topics such as democratic and political reforms, her own struggles, youth activism and economic empowerment. Nurul Izzah said the "enabling of the genocidal onslaught in Gaza by the hegemons and their ilk reminds us of the need to reaffirm our solidarity." She spoke alongside international and Bangladeshi speakers at the first International Conference on the July Revolution, organised by the Dhaka-based think tank Research and Integrated Thought (RIT) and Dhaka University's Department of Political Science.
Canada News.Net
20-07-2025
- Politics
- Canada News.Net
Bangladesh youth rally turns violent, leaving several dead
DHAKA, Bangladesh: At least four people were killed and several injured on July 16 when violence broke out during a rally organized by Bangladesh's youth-driven National Citizen Party (NCP) in the southern town of Gopalganj, according to local news outlets. The gathering marked the first anniversary of student-led protests that forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to India in August 2024. Since then, frustration has grown over stalled political reforms and rising unrest. Interim leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who took charge following Hasina's departure, condemned the violence in a post on X (formerly Twitter), stating that NCP supporters, journalists, and police were attacked during what was intended to be a peaceful rally. Vehicles were vandalized and participants assaulted, he added. "Blocking young citizens from peacefully commemorating their movement is a disgraceful breach of fundamental rights," Yunus wrote, accusing Hasina's Awami League and its affiliated student wing of inciting the attacks. News reports varied slightly in casualty counts: BBC News Bangla confirmed four deaths, while Prothom Alo, a Dhaka-based daily, reported nine injuries. Authorities have imposed a curfew in response to the unrest. Neither police nor local hospital officials responded to media inquiries. Meanwhile, the Awami League claimed on Facebook that one of its members was killed by army gunfire during the confrontation.
India Today
17-07-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Pakistani Taliban recruiting actively in Bangladesh, but intel agencies clueless
After years of wreaking havoc in Pakistan, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) – a jihadist terrorist group – now appears to be recruiting and expanding its footprint to Bangladesh. The activities of the TTP in Bangladesh, which shares an over 4,000-km-long border with India, might come as a concern to New Delhi. What makes the situation graver is that the Bangladeshi security and intelligence establishment seems oblivious to the is evidence of at least two Pakistani Taliban recruits from Bangladesh travelling to Afghanistan via Pakistan. One of them was killed in April in an encounter with the Pakistan Army in comes even as Malaysia detained 36 Bangladeshi nationals in June for their alleged ties to militant networks. The TTP mainly operates in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of the rise in activities of the TTP come even as Bangladesh sees home-grown jihadi groups getting a boost after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina regime in August July, Bangladesh's Anti-Terrorism Unit (ATU) arrested two individuals, Shamin Mahfuz and Md Foysal, for alleged links to the TTP, according to Dhaka-based The Daily authorities are focused on containing the threat through intelligence-driven operations, said the ATU, established by Bangladesh Police in 2017, targets such threats using advanced intelligence arrests follow a May report by Bangladeshi digital outlet The Dissent, which revealed that at least eight Bangladeshi nationals are currently active in Afghanistan as TTP of them was reportedly killed by the Pakistan army in April, though news of his death only surfaced in Bangladeshi media in Bangladesh's security establishment seems unaware of these Rahman Chowdhury, who identifies himself as a human rights activist and a political analyst on X, wrote on Tuesday, "I am wondering about the possible number of active members of the Pakistan-based banned militant group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Bangladesh. Yet, various officers of ranks like DIG and Police Commissioner from the Yunus-led interim government's administration have repeatedly stated that there are no militants in the country...""Bangladesh authorities arrested a man from Gaibandha for being associated with Pakistan-based terrorist organisation. A rare good job in recent time... (sic)," Soumik Saheb, who identifies as a human rights activist, took a dig at the country's security establishment and the with two arrests and reports of Bangladeshi nationals actively joining the Pakistani Taliban, more arrests could is no stranger to extremist violence – a 2016 Islamic State-linked attack in Dhaka killed 22 civilians and triggered nationwide crackdowns on militant TERROR GROUP LEADER ARRESTED AGAINOn July 14, the ATU arrested Shamin Mahfuz in Narayanganj, following his alleged involvement with the TTP. A former leader of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and founder of Jama'atul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya in 2019, Shamin has a significant militant detained in 2014 for Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) recruitment and in 2023 by the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit with explosives, he faces 10 cases under the Anti-Terrorism Act, Explosives Act, and Arms November 2005, JMB marked a grim chapter in the nation's history by carrying out its first-ever suicide was released on bail in October 2024. He allegedly collaborated with Nathan Bom of the Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF), a Bandarban-based separatist group, to establish militant training camps in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Shamin and Nathan Bom were close friends at Dhaka University, according to The Daily Star report. Bangladesh police escort Shamin Mahfuz (second left) and his wife (second right) after his arrest in the capital Dhaka in 2023. (Photo: AFP) advertisementA Dhaka University graduate and former teacher at Bangladesh Open University, Shamin, known as "Sir" in militant circles, was expelled from a cadet college for ties to Islami Chhatrashibir. He is currently under a five-day remand for questioning.2 BANGLADESHI TTP Recruits TRAVELLED TO AFGHANISTANMeanwhile, on July 2, Md Foysal, 33, was arrested at his shop, Bhai Brothers Telecom, in Savar city, based on intelligence linking him to the TTP, The Daily Star also allegedly travelled to Afghanistan via Pakistan in October 2024 with Ahmed Jubair, a Bangladeshi national who was killed in a Pakistan Army operation in Waziristan in April to Foysal's reported confession, he and Jubair were recruited by Imran Haider, an aeronautical engineer who he met in Afghanistan, a central figure in mobilising Bangladeshi youths for militant ideology online and preparing for jihad.A case was filed on July 5 under the Anti-Terrorism Act naming Foysal and five others — Imran Haider, Rezaul Karim Abrar, Asif Adnan, Zakaria Masud, and Md Sanaf Hasan — for these remains in jail pending further investigation, the Dhaka-based daily arrests align with regional efforts to curb militancy, as seen in Malaysia's detention of 36 Bangladeshi nationals in June for alleged militant network ties, according to Malaysian outlet New Straits to Reuters, all of them had gone to Malaysia to work in factories or in sectors like construction and services. The network recruited Bangladeshi workers and used social media and messaging platforms to spread extremist ideologies, per police intelligence quoted by network also reportedly raised funds using international fund transfer services and e-wallets to send to the IS group in Syria and Bangladesh. Five were charged with being part of a terrorist organisation, while 15 will be deported to Bangladesh. Another 16 remained in custody pending further probe, the Reuters report of the crackdown and arrests of two terrorists, the presence of TTP-linked operatives in Bangladesh is a troubling development for a nation already grappling with political turmoil. It might also be of concern for India.- EndsMust Watch
