22 July, 2016

Over 11 million Hindus Left Bangladesh In Last 49 yrs : Dr Abul Barkat

Eminent Bangladesh economist Dr. Abul Barkat said in his recent research paper captioned “Seventh Five Year Planning (2016-20) in Bangladesh: The Dream and Reality” that over 11 million Hindus had left Bangladesh due to religious persecution and discriminations from 1964 to 2013.



Dr Barkat, who is head of the department of economics at the University of Dhaka, was delivering a lecture at a seminar on Rajshahi University in Bangladesh on July 17, 2016. The seminar organised jointly by Bangladesh Economic Forum and Department of Economics of the university was focused on poverty alleviation, elimination of discrimination and economic development.



The Bangla economist clarified his views stating that GDP and consideration economic development in current parameters were unable to find any direct connection to change the status of the economically vulnerable groups. In most of the cases, such data deliverance did not any good for the minorities, tribal and marginal people in Bangladesh.

Dr. Barkat pointed the regular evacuation of the minorities, tribal and marginal people living in the plain or hilly areas from their rights of lands, water bodies, and forests.

Lashing out on the ‘The Enemy Property (Custody and Registration) Act of 1965’ and its subsequent versions of ‘The East Pakistan Enemy Property (Lands and Buildings Administration and Disposal Order of 1966)’, ‘The Enemy Property (Continuance of Emergency Provision) Ordinance No. 1 of 1969, or the latest avatar of it, ‘The Vested and Non-Resident Property (Administration) Act (XLVI of 1974)’, Dr Barkat said that all these acts and ordinances were engineered to disown the rights of Hindu minority and other non-Muslims from the soil of Bangladesh.

According to Dr. Barkat, 632 Hindus left Bangladesh per day on an average in the last 49 years from 1964 to 2013. As per this calculation, about 11 million Hindus had left their homes and hearths in Bangladesh and sought refuge mostly in India.  The reasons are obvious and related with Islamic brutality, persecution, and discrimination.

The percentage of Hindus to the total population in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) in 1947 was 30. By 1991, an estimated 20 million Hindus went “missing” from that country. Today, Hindus are less than 9 percent of the total population in Bangladesh.

Political and religious violence continued to plague Bangladesh throughout 2014 and the first half of 2015. Organizations like Jamat-e-Islami, Islamic Chhatra Shivir, and Bangladesh National Party have been allegedly engaged in violent street riots, forced economic blockades, and hartals besides conducting massive attacks on Hindu and other religious minorities and secular activists and bloggers.

The ruling Awami League government is also responsible for the current unrest by repressing political dissent, imposing restrictions on freedom of speech, and failing to protect minority communities from violence. Moreover, security forces committed widespread human rights abuses. (Source: Hindus in South Asia and the Diaspora – A Survey of Human Rights 2014-2015 by HAF).

As a matter of fact, the Human Rights issues in Bangladesh for the minority, tribal and marginal people are in a very deplorable condition. The present government in Bangladesh, ruling party Awami League (AL) and Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina have completely failed to give safety, security, and any comfort to the vulnerable minority people in Bangladesh.

Islamic Bangladesh is growing fast as a Jihad-desh. Taliban and ISIS goons are desperate to take the control of Bangladesh in reality. Killing minorities, hacking the liberals, threatening everybody at any point, attacking restaurants shouting Allah ho Akbar or imposing Sharia and Halal by government wings are the indicators of the future of Bangladesh.

According to ‘Hindu Existence’ majority of these victims of persecution belong to so called low caste ‘Dalit’ Hindus. They are victimised by state-sponsored Islamic fundamentalists.

(Inputs from agencies)

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