TMC, BSP want UN, India to respond to plight of minorities in Bangladesh

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have both expressed concerns over the targeting of religious minorities, particularly the Hindu community, in Bangladesh.

On Tuesday, 3 December, the TMC urged the central government to request the United Nations (UN) to deploy peacekeeping forces in Bangladesh to address the situation.

Meanwhile, BSP leader Mayawati also raised alarms about the attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh, calling for the Indian government to make a statement in Parliament regarding the issue.

Both parties highlighted the need for immediate action and international intervention to protect religious minorities in Bangladesh.

TMC's Sudip Bandyopadhyay raised the issue during Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha.

He said minorities, including Hindus, are being tortured and killed in Bangladesh and urged the Centre to appeal to the UN to immediately send peacekeeping forces to the country.

Being an immediate neighbour of Bangladesh, West Bengal is directly affected by the happenings there. In the past too, there has been an influx of refugees, he said.

Bandyopadhyay noted that the Indian government has so far maintained a studied silence on the issue, while hosting ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, and asked external affairs minister S. Jaishankar to apprise the House of the latest developments in the matter.

On Monday, 2 December West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee urged the Centre to move the UN seeking deployment of a peacekeeping mission in Bangladesh.

Reportedly, there have been more than 200 attacks on Hindus in 50 districts of Bangladesh since the fall of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League government on 5 August. Hindus constitute about 8 per cent of Bangladesh's population of 170 million.

Meanwhile, the BJP leaders, including chief minister of Assam — another Bangladesh neighbour, notably — Himanta Biswa Sarma, have been campaigning heavily against 'Bangladeshi infiltrators' into India.

Meanwhile, another neighbour, Tripura, saw a private hospital and a hotel turn away Bangladeshi nationals in 'protest' against the recent violence in Bangladesh.

Further from the border in Uttar Pradesh, BSP chief Mayawati in her post on X in Hindi called for a formal statement from the Indian government: 'After the coup in Bangladesh, the violence and atrocities being committed by the new government, especially on Hindu minorities, and the deteriorating situation there due to this are very sad and worrying. There is a lot of anger among the people of India regarding this.'

'The government should make a statement in Parliament on this and also take appropriate steps,' she wrote.

With PTI and IANS inputs