Hindus in Bangladesh rally to demand protection from attacks and harassment

Tens of thousands of minority Hindus rallied Friday to demand that the interim government in Muslim-majority Bangladesh protect them from a wave of attacks and harassment and drop sedition cases against Hindu community leaders.

About 30,000 Hindus demonstrated at a major intersection in the southeastern city of Chattogram chanting slogans demanding their rights while police and soldiers guarded the area. Other protests were reported elsewhere in the country.

Hindu groups say thousands of attacks against Hindus have happened since early August when the secular government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was overthrown and Hasina fled the country following a student-led uprising. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel peace laureate named to lead an interim government after Hasina's downfall, says those figures have been exaggerated.

Hindus make up about 8% of the country's nearly 170 million people, while Muslims are about 91%.

The country’s influential minority group Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council has said that there have been more than 2,000 attacks on Hindus since Aug. 4. Hindus and other minority communities say the interim government hasn't adequately protected them and that hardline Islamists are becoming increasingly influential since Hasina's ouster.

Hindu activists have been staging protest rallies in the capital, Dhaka, and elsewhere since August to press a set of eight demands including a law to protect minorities, a ministry for minorities and a tribunal to prosecute acts of oppression against minorities. They also seek a five-day holiday for their largest festival, the Durga Puja.

Friday's protest in Chattogram was hastily organized after sedition charges were filed Wednesday against 19 Hindu leaders, including prominent priest Chandan Kumar Dhar, over an Oct. 25 rally in that city. Police arrested two of the leaders, angering Hindus.

The charges stem from an incident when a group of rally-goers allegedly placed a saffron flag above the Bangladesh flag on a pillar, which was considered disrespecting the national flag.

Hindu community leaders say the cases are politically motivated and on Thursday demanded that they be withdrawn within 72 hours. Another Hindu rally has been planned for Saturday in Dhaka.

Separately, supporters of Hasina's Awami League party and its allied Jatiya Party have said they also have been targeted since Hasina's ouster. The Jatiya Party's headquarters was vandalized and set on fire late Thursday.

On Friday, Jatiya Chairman G.M. Quader said his supporters would continue to hold rallies to demand their rights despite risking their lives. He said they would hold a rally in Dhaka on Saturday to protest price hikes of commodities, and what they call false charges against their leaders and activists.