WASHINGTON and OTTAWA, ON, Aug. 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The disturbing and heart wrenching data, visuals and testimony of Hindus under attack in their historic homeland of Bangladesh, require collective action. The Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA) is urging immediate intervention by the US State Department, the Department of Global Affairs in Canada, the UN, and other collective forces in order to prevent a selective genocide and mass targeting of religious minorities.

Bangladeshi Hindus are being physically assaulted and killed. A number of temples have been destroyed, homes and businesses of Hindus systematically vandalized and even set on fire.

"Since this past week-well before the fall of the Sheikh Hasina Government, I had started receiving calls and messages for help," said a CoHNA volunteer from Bangladesh who wishes to remain anonymous to ensure their family is not targeted. "My friends and family are traumatized and in fear of their lives. I will never recover from the horribly graphic and stark images of torture and terror that I have had shared with me and the calls for help where I am unable to do anything. I am asking all those with influence to speak up and ask for our safety and basic human rights."

The plight of Hindu women is especially worrisome given many reports of abduction, rapes, and sexual violence. Amidst the mind-numbing violence, there are several calls for exterminating the Hindu population that hark back to the unfinished agenda of Operation Searchlight in the 1971 Bengali Hindu Genocide.

"As a grassroots advocacy and civil rights organization based in the US and Canada, we have Hindus from different parts of the world who are volunteers, members, and supporters. As such, since last week, we have been getting advance warnings and calls for help when most of the world was focused on the political turmoil," said Nikunj Trivedi, President of CoHNA. "Haunted by the carnage we saw, we decided to act, launching a campaign to gather and share the information trickling out and enabling those who care for basic human rights to easily share the same with their lawmakers. Thousands have signed, but we need more to drive change among our lawmakers."

CoHNA asks everyone to take action immediately:

• Join our Congressional Briefing on the Bangladesh violence on Monday, August 12, at 6 PM EST by clicking here.
• Sign this letter to send a message to your lawmakers. Make them aware of the carnage, call to follow up after the email and ask for help for the religious minorities. So far, 50,000 emails have been sent, but we need more.
  • US residents click here.
  • Canadian residents click here.
• If you are in Toronto, join a vigil on August 10 to show your support.
• Consider organizing a vigil in your town, Contact CoHNA for support.

The Background

This latest spate of violence comes on the back of systemic large scale violence periodically unleashed on Bangladeshi Hindus. The scale, scope, and pattern of this slow genocide, has been widely documented by human rights groups as well as American lawmakers like late Sen. Ted Kennedy and late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.

In 1951 after the partition of the Indian Subcontinent, Hindus constituted 22 percent of the population in the then East Pakistan. In 1974, after the creation of Bangladesh, that number had fallen to 13.75 percent and the downward trajectory continued despite the formation of what was hailed as a new secular republic. Today, Bangladeshi Hindus constitute less than 8 percent of the total population.

The religious violence against Hindus is often camouflaged under the broader turmoil, but the numbers don't lie. In 1971, a US State Department Report noted that "more than 60% of the Bengali refugees who fled to India were Hindus," despite being less than 18 percent of the population in East Pakistan at that time. Yet, popular media at the time depicted (and continues to depict it) as primarily differences over language. The disproportionate violence directed today at this minority community is part of the same trend - only this time we are hearing it presented as party preferences.

About CoHNA

CoHNA is a grassroots level advocacy and civil rights organization dedicated to improving the understanding of Hinduism in North America by working on matters related to the Hindu community and by educating the public about Hindu heritage and tradition. For more information, please visit https://cohna.org or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and on Instagram.

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SOURCE Coalition of Hindus of North America