Attacks, online misinformation frighten Bangladeshi Hindus in wake of Hasina’s ouster

Hindus block the streets of the Shahbagh intersection as they protest against violence on their community in Dhaka, Bangladesh, August 10, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 11 August 2024
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Attacks, online misinformation frighten Bangladeshi Hindus in wake of Hasina’s ouster

  • Hindus are the largest minority faith in mostly Muslim Bangladesh and are considered a steadfast support base for Hasina’s party
  • After Hasina’s abrupt resignation and flight abroad on Aug. 5, numerous Hindu families came into the crosshairs of their neighbors

DHAKA: Young Bangladeshi professional Tanushree Shaha is outraged by recent mob violence against her family in the chaotic wake of premier Sheikh Hasina’s ouster from power, fearful that her fellow Hindus could face more reprisals.
Those fears, however justified, are being turbocharged by a wave of false rumors of other, deadly attacks being spread online and amplified by the media in Hindu-majority neighbor India.
Hindus are the largest minority faith in mostly Muslim Bangladesh and are considered a steadfast support base for Hasina’s party, the Awami League.
After Hasina’s abrupt resignation and flight abroad on Monday brought an end to her 15 years of autocratic rule, numerous Hindu families came into the crosshairs of their neighbors.
“A group of people vandalized my uncle’s shop,” said Shaha, the 31-year-old manager of a handicrafts business in the capital Dhaka.
She told AFP the mob had stolen his cash till and emptied the shelves of his grocery store further north in the city of Mymensingh.
They then beat him and demanded more money to prevent future attacks.
Shaha was standing with more than 1,000 Hindus at a boisterous rally near Dhaka University, where the student protests that toppled Hasina began last month.
The group had gathered to demand the country’s new interim government, led by Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, urgently protect members of their faith from harm.
But Shaha said the animosity toward Hindus ran deeper than the national upheaval of the past month.
“Whenever a government falls or a problem arises, we are victimized by opportunists,” she said.
Hindus account for around eight percent of Bangladesh’s 170 million people.
That is a sharp fall from 1947, when the haphazard partition of India and Pakistan on religious lines at the end of British colonial rule sparked widespread violence.
Many more fled in 1971 during Bangladesh’s devastating liberation war against Pakistan.
Up to three million people died in the conflict and Hindus, seen as supporters of independence, were disproportionate victims.
Over the past week, religious rights groups said they documented more than 200 incidents of attacks on minority communities, a figure that also includes Christians and Buddhists.
“The incidents include attacking homes, vandalising shops and places of worship,” rights activist Rana Dasgupta said in a video statement. “Women were abused too.”
Hundreds of other Hindus arrived at the Indian border after Hasina’s fall, asking to cross.
Nearly all of these attacks took place in the chaotic hours after the premier fled and the police force, loathed for firing on anti-Hasina demonstrators, went on strike.
The young students who ousted her and other members of the public have stepped into the law-and-order vacuum.
They have organized nightly neighborhood watch groups, and posted volunteers outside temples to stop looting.
“We are staying awake at night to catch the robbers,” Mohammed Miad, patrolling one busy Dhaka neighborhood after midnight on Sunday, told AFP.
Student protest leaders met with the Hindu community on Friday to hear their concerns and pass them on to Yunus’s administration.
Yunus himself said on Saturday that there was no room for discrimination in the country.
“Our responsibility is to build a new Bangladesh,” he told reporters.
“Don’t differentiate by religion.”
Anxieties are being further inflamed by the spread of false reports of attacks online suggesting the violence against Hindus is orders of magnitude worse than reality.
Many originated from social media users in India, whose Prime Minister Narendra Modi is an unabashed champion of the Hindu faith and was a staunch backer of Hasina’s rule.
One widely shared X post written in Hindi, India’s most common language, falsely claimed that over 500 Hindus had been killed, hundreds of Hindu women raped and dozens of temples burned to the ground.
Many of the more outlandish claims had also been picked up and reported as fact by Indian media, International Crisis Group’s Thomas Kean told AFP.
“Their reporting and analysis reflects a worldview that is quite out of touch with the reality on the ground,” he said.
Hasina took refuge in India after her fall, heightening animosity toward the regional giant among Bangladeshis.
But whether this provoked a spike in violence against practitioners of India’s majority faith in Bangladesh is far from certain.
Many attacks appear to have been petty and opportunistic robberies against a largely affluent but vulnerable minority.
Kean said that of the more than 450 people killed in the unrest around Hasina’s ouster, there was no indication that Hindus had been disproportionate victims.
Yet even if the worst reports of attacks against Hindus were fabricated, the pervasive sense of fear and anger within the community has persisted.
“After the fall of the dictatorship, we were supposed to hold a victory rally,” student Moumita Adhikari, 20, told AFP at the Hindu protest near Dhaka University.
“So why are we protesting here?” she asked. “Aren’t we citizens of this country?“


Top opponent of India PM Modi quits after release from jail

Updated 3 sec ago
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Top opponent of India PM Modi quits after release from jail

The Supreme Court granted him bail last week on the condition that he refrained from signing official files or visiting his office
Kejriwal responded by tendering his resignation to seek a fresh mandate from the public in Delhi polls slated for early next year

NEW DELHI: A top political opponent of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi quit as chief minister of the capital Delhi on Tuesday, days after being released on bail in a corruption case.
Arvind Kejriwal, a key leader in an opposition alliance that battled Modi in national elections this year, was detained in March on accusations his city government received kickbacks from allocating liquor licenses.
He is among several opposition figures facing graft probes. His party has described his arrest as a “political conspiracy” orchestrated by Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Supreme Court granted him bail last week on the condition that he refrained from signing official files or visiting his office.
Kejriwal responded by tendering his resignation to seek a fresh mandate from the public in Delhi polls slated for early next year.
The capital’s education minister Atishi, who goes by one name, will replace him in the interim.
“Atishi steps up to lead Delhi until the upcoming elections, carrying the weight of both CM Arvind Kejriwal’s vision and the national capital’s future,” a statement from their Aam Aadmi Party said.
Kejriwal, 56, began his career as a tax collector but quit his civil service job to become a national anti-corruption crusader, bringing him national fame.
Hundreds of cheering supporters greeted him as he left jail on Friday, accusing the government of trying to “break him” by putting him behind bars.
“My resolve is stronger than before,” he said. “God is by my side.”
Kejriwal refused to resign from his position while in custody despite questions over whether his jailing would prevent him from carrying out his official duties.
Atishi, 43, suggested after her nomination that she would still be looking to her predecessor for guidance.
“Delhi only has one chief minister. It is Arvind Kejriwal,” she said.
Kejriwal’s administration was accused of corruption when it liberalized the sale of liquor in the capital three years ago, surrendering a lucrative government stake in the sector.
He is among several prominent Modi opponents to face criminal investigation or trial in recent years.
US think tank Freedom House said this year that the BJP had “increasingly used government institutions to target political opponents.”

Germany pledges winter aid package for Ukraine

Updated 5 sec ago
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Germany pledges winter aid package for Ukraine

  • Moscow has pounded Ukraine’s energy network throughout the two-and-a-half year war
  • Moscow is also targeting the country’s energy reserves

BERLIN: Germany will provide 100 million euros ($111 million) in aid to help Ukraine through the coming winter as it weathers Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.
“Ukraine is facing another winter of war and Putin is waging a brutal war of cold,” the ministry wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“Russia is deliberately attacking Ukraine’s heat and energy supply. This is why Germany is providing a further 100 million euros in winter aid for the (Ukrainian) energy supply.”
Moscow has pounded Ukraine’s energy network throughout the two-and-a-half year war, destroying swathes of the country’s infrastructure and causing severe power shortages and blackouts.
Russian forces have recently shifted their focus from shelling energy distribution networks to targeting energy production facilities, which are much more costly and take years to repair or rebuild.
Moscow is also targeting the country’s energy reserves.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal last week laid out plans to repair and protect the country’s power system ahead of the winter, including reinforcing facilities against drone attacks and impacts from missile fragments.
Shmygal said all hospitals and more than 80 percent of schools across the country were equipped with generators, but there was still “an urgent need for another 1,800 high-capacity generators.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in June that Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy facilities had destroyed half of its electricity generation capacity since last winter.
In early September, the EU announced 40 million euros in humanitarian aid for Ukraine to help with repair work, electricity, heating and housing ahead of the coming winter.


Germany says Moldova could be next in line if Ukraine falls

Updated 11 min 17 sec ago
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Germany says Moldova could be next in line if Ukraine falls

  • “Everything that we do to support Ukraine also means fostering stabilization with regards to Moldova,” Baerbock said
  • “It is clear what the greatest concern of the people here is: that if Ukraine falls, Moldova is the next country in line“

CHISINAU: Support for Ukraine guarantees the survival of neighboring Moldova, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Tuesday at a conference to address concerns about broadening Russian interference in the region.
“Everything that we do to support Ukraine also means fostering stabilization with regards to Moldova,” Baerbock said. “It is clear what the greatest concern of the people here is: that if Ukraine falls, Moldova is the next country in line.”
Baerbock was visiting Chisinau for the Moldova Partnership Platform, together with her counterparts from France, Romania, Poland, the Netherlands and Lithuania.
Germany, one of Kyiv’s main military supporters in Europe, initiated the platform after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, painting it as part of broader efforts to stabilize Moldova’s economy and shield it from Russian disinformation.
Moldova, which has a Romanian-speaking majority and large Russian-speaking minority, has alternated between pro-Russian and pro-Western governments since the fall of the Soviet Union, and now has a strong Western-oriented administration. Moscow has troops stationed in a region where pro-Russian separatists broke from Chisinau’s control in a short war in the early 1990s.
Moldovan President Maia Sandu, who has accused Russia of trying to overthrow her government, said Moldova still faces serious challenges and urged partners to increase their support.
“Russia’s war against Ukraine, which we condemned from the very first day, has caused enormous damage to our economy,” Sandu said.
“The uncertainty caused by the war continues to seriously hinder our economic development and will continue to hinder it as long as the war lasts,” she added.
Within the framework of the platform, agreements were signed to provide Moldova with more than 300 million euros ($334 million) in loans and 80 million euros in grants, the government’s press service said.
Allies also welcomed Moldova’s efforts to join the European Union. Under Sandu, Moldova, which lies between Ukraine and NATO and EU member Romania, hopes to join the bloc by 2030.
France, Germany and Poland voiced their “unwavering and continuous support for Moldova” in its bid to join, according to a draft resolution seen by Reuters following a meeting of the three countries’ top diplomats.
The countries, known as the Weimar Triangle, also promised support to the Moldovan armed forces to defend the country, both bilaterally and as EU partners.
In May, Moldova signed a security and defense partnership with the EU, the first country to agree such a deal with the bloc.


Turkiye, Sweden to hold first security talks since NATO entry

Updated 11 min 24 sec ago
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Turkiye, Sweden to hold first security talks since NATO entry

  • The meeting will take place during a visit to Ankara by Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard

ANKARA: Turkiye and Sweden will hold their first meeting on Wednesday addressing a security pact the sides agreed to ensure Ankara’s approval of Stockholm’s NATO membership bid, a Turkish diplomatic source said on Tuesday.
The meeting will take place during a visit to Ankara by Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard, and it carried “special importance” in terms of improving cooperation on terrorism, the source said.
Turkiye approved Sweden’s bid to join the military alliance in January after a more than year-long delay over concerns about Sweden’s stance on groups and individuals it deems terrorists, and over an arms embargo that Stockholm later lifted.
As part of the approval, Ankara demanded that Stockholm amend anti-terrorism laws and crack down on members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) — also labelled a terrorist group by the United States and European Union — as well as a group it accuses of orchestrating a 2016 failed putsch.
The formation of the “Security Compact” was agreed by NATO’s then-chief Jens Stoltenberg and Turkish and Swedish leaders at an alliance summit in 2023. The parties had also agreed that Stockholm would present a “roadmap” on counter-terrorism.
Sweden joined NATO in March.
“Cooperation in the field of security, especially the fight against terrorism, will be discussed within the framework of the road map,” the source said, adding that the talks aimed to pave the way for additional steps on the PKK and its Syrian offshoots, as well others.
Turkiye’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, and Stenergard will also discuss bilateral ties during the meetings, the source added.


Portugal battles wildfires as death toll climbs to four

Updated 19 min 27 sec ago
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Portugal battles wildfires as death toll climbs to four

  • More than 1,000 firefighters worked through the night to control a cluster of four blazes in the northwestern Aveiro district
  • Authorities have closed several motorways, including a stretch of the main highway linking Lisbon and Porto

NELAS, Portugal: Four people have died so far in wildfires raging in central and northern Portugal and over 40 have been injured, state news agency Lusa reported on Tuesday, as authorities evacuated more villages overnight.
The civil protection authority accounted for three deaths as of Monday night and would not comment on Lusa’s report.
More than 1,000 firefighters worked through the night to control a cluster of four blazes in the northwestern Aveiro district.
Reuters footage showed local residents pouring buckets of water on advancing flames near the town of Nelas about 50 km (31 miles) east of Aveiro.
There were 48 active wildfires in mainland Portugal mobilizing around 5,000 firefighters.
In Aveiro alone, the blazes have burned through more than 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres) of forest and scrubland in the past two days, officials said, roughly the same acreage that was consumed by fires through the end of August in the entire country.
National emergency and civil protection commander Andre Fernandes said late on Monday the Aveiro fires could engulf a further 20,000 hectares.
Authorities have closed several motorways, including a stretch of the main highway linking Lisbon and Porto, and suspended train connections on two railroad lines in northern Portugal.
Portugal and neighboring Spain have recorded fewer fires than usual after a rainy start to the year, but both remain vulnerable to the increasingly hot and dry conditions that scientists have blamed on global warming.
Temperatures topped 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) across the country over the weekend, when the fires first broke out and were fanned by strong winds. The meteorology agency IPMA forecasts they would stay above 30 C (86 F) for the next two days, amid extremely low humidity.
The danger of fires will remain ‘high, very high or maximum’ in the northern and central regions, it said.
“We need to be realistic. We will have difficult hours in the coming days and we have to get ready for it,” Prime Minister Luis Montenegro told reporters on Monday night.
The government on Monday requested help from the European Commission under the EU civil protection mechanism, leading Spain, Italy and Greece to send two water-bombing aircraft each.