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The Damned And The Forgotten

With attention focused on the war westwards, there's none to heed the plight of Hindus fleeing the excesses of BNP rule

Hounded out of his property by an armed mob in Bangladesh on October 8 and facing imminent arrest as an illegal alien in West Bengal, Bidhubhusan Das (45) is not even a statistical entity today. Cowering in a dark hideout somewhere in Habra in North 24 Parganas, Das and his faceless associates are a shattered lot. "Only days ago, I owned a merchandise store in the Bhola area of Barisal district, employing 15 men. This morning, I am cutting grass here as a daily wage labourer! Even my shirt is borrowed; I've been feeding off the locals. I just about managed to escape hiding in the fields during the day, walking endlessly during the night with the other escapees."

Bidhu's account is typical of the horror tales told to the local media by most of the estimated 15,000 people who have fled here illegally from Bangladesh in the last one month. Their experience is indicative of the kind of existence the minority Hindus can expect in a BNP-ruled Bangladesh. Ever since Khaleda Zia came to power in October, the minority communities, particularly Hindus, have had to face the wrath of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaati activists who have gone on a rampage against them. Fearing for their lives, Hindus are fleeing Bangladesh in the thousands.

It was all planned prior to the October 1 polls. Consider the BNP/Jamaat election slogan critical of 'Hindu-friendly' Sheikh Hasina: Hare Krishna hare Ram, Hasinar baper naam; Hindu jodi bachte chao, Bangla chere Bharat jao (Hasina's father is Hare Krishna, Hare Ram, if you want to survive, Hindus leave Bangladesh and go to India). The supposedly neutral caretaker regime did not take the slightest notice of the deteriorating communal situation and rising tension despite repeated complaints. Recalls refugee Rubel Das: "We used to cower every time a procession went past our houses, shouting these slogans, with the hotheads rattling our doors or shattering our window panes."

Das recalls his experience on voting day. "I was initially scared to vote but curiosity prevailed and I went to the booth. I saw local policemen driving out bunches of Hindu women in the queue, twice at least, so they could not vote. On the other hand, a batch of burqa-clad ladies cast their vote several times, voting and rejoining the queue at the head, no ink being applied to their fingers. It was a mockery of elections, the crudest form of rigging."

The floodgates opened the next day onwards, as a BNP win looked certain. Communal violence erupted with reports coming in from at least 40 out of 64 districts. The police, alleges refugee Sunil De, turned a blind eye. The newly-elected BNP and Jamaat MPs began issuing diktats. In Barisal, two BNP MPs announced that no sale of property or bank transaction would be conducted sans their approval. "The Hindus have no right here," declared a Bhola MP, urging the police not to be too harsh with "young boys having a bit of fun"!

Swapan Das, member of the Bangladesh Udbastu Unnayan Sangstha (BUUS), the only group that looks after the refugees, points to Shefali Das, 40: "She is a rape victim." The woman who crossed over with two girls (aged 10 and 8) and a boy (6), stares vacantly and answers questions vaguely. Yes, she'd seen some women raped, often by their neighbours. "Even in normal times, Muslims, even young kids, openly abuse and taunt us." Their house, in Padmamansa village in Barisal, was attacked on October 3.

Das and Bimal Majumdar, another BUUS office-bearer, refugees themselves, are expectedly angry over official apathy for the new refugees". The state and central governments treat these people as aliens to be arrested. They are killed or robbed in Bangladesh and arrested here because they are Hindus! On the other hand, our political leaders, mostly East Bengalis (Bangals), spare no efforts to procure ration cards and official documents to help illegal Muslim infiltrators settle here, regardless of party affiliations. People like us, hounded out of Bangladesh after 1971, are denied citizenship, official documents of any kind which means we can't secure official jobs legally! Local intellectuals, who sign petitions and march for Afghans, haven't uttered a word on behalf of these thousands of people driven from their homes right next door!"

Concerned over international reaction (EU nations complained of widespread harassment and attacks on Christians), Bangladesh authorities have peddled the familiar line of the media exaggerating a few incidents that took place while the caretaker regime was in charge and ordering law-enforcing agencies to ensure there is no more trouble. It's too little being done too late as even a cursory look at developments shows that what happened in Bangladesh was, in effect, a joint operation of the BNP, the Jamaat, the police and some prominent MPs.

The Puja week (October 21-24) exposed the farce of normalcy. An incident in Barisal plumbed the depths of human degradation when two girls—Supama (8) and Sulekha Das (7)—were raped in Bhola while their hapless father was forced to watch. The man was strangled and killed when he protested. Supama died, while Sulekha is still in hospital. BUUS leaders are trying to collect more details on this.

The reaction of the Bangladesh authorities has been very casual so far. Calcutta-based diplomats say that neither the Indian nor the West Bengal governments have taken the matter up yet. They do say that with the situation returning to normal, Bangladeshi citizens would certainly be taken back.

This leaves Trishna, who has no word of her 25-member joint family, seething. She and Shefali had to shell out Rs 10,000 to guards and agents on both sides of the border. Trishna too recounts rapes she had witnessed in hiding, on October 12, near her house in Bhola. "Women, whether young or middle-aged, fell at the attackers' feet, sobbing, pleading, but in vain."

BUUS sources have drawn up a tentative list of 57 incidents of communal violence against Hindus, their buildings, shops, temples, rapes and looting, culled from Bangladeshi papers Janakantha, Jugantar, Pratham Alo and Ittefaq, just from October 3 to October 8. The reports speak of trouble from Chittagong, Sylhet, Munsinganj, Gopalganj, Mymensingh, Netrokona, Pirojpur, Noakhali, Bogra.... "Only a strong protest by the Indian government and censures from international human rights agencies can help us now. The problem is there are no signs of anyone listening," laments Majumdar.

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