Protect Hindu community members: US Congressman urges Bangladeshi interim government amid rise in attacks on minority communities

"Bangladesh’s interim government has an absolute obligation to protect its Hindu minority and meaningfully address the protests of thousands of minority Hindus in outcry over the recent wave of attacks and harassment," the US Congressman said in a statement.

"With the calls for an investigation from the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk for killings and other rights violations during the violent unrest leading up to and after the fall of Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the current administration must demonstrate leadership in eliminating acts of violence against the Hindu community," he said.

Meanwhile, ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has slammed the country's interim leader Muhammad Yunus in her first public address, accusing him of persecuting minorities.

In a virtual address at an event in New York on Sunday, she claimed that there were plans to assassinate her and her sister Sheikh Rehana just like their father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was assassinated in 1975.

This is her first public address after taking shelter in India following her resignation in August.

Referring to the attack on her official residence in Dhaka on August 5, Hasina said: "The armed protestors were directed towards Ganabhaban. If the security guards opened fire, many lives would have been lost. It was a matter of 25-30 minutes, and I was forced to leave. I told them [guards] not to fire no matter what happened."

"Today, I am being accused of genocide. In reality, Yunus has been involved in genocide in a meticulously designed manner. The masterminds -- the student coordinators and Yunus -- are behind this genocide," she said.

Hasina said the current government in Dhaka failed to protect the minorities.

Bangladeshi minority community members have been demonstrating for the past several days after Hindu priest Chinmoy Krishna Das was arrested over sedition charges in the country and sent to prison.
According to reports, Hindu community members have been targeted by radicals ever since Hasina government toppled in the South Asian nation.