London:
UK member of Parliament Bob Blackman, chair of the All Get together Parliamentary Group (APPG) for British Hindus, has raised considerations within the Home of Commons over the assaults on Hindus in Bangladesh.
Throughout a Parliament session on Thursday, the MP for Harrow East in north London condemned the persecution of minorities and the imprisonment of Hindu non secular chief Chinmoy Krishna Das in Bangladesh.
He identified that Das is the non secular chief of the Worldwide Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), which runs the Bhaktivedanta Manor temple at Elstree in Watford, one of many UK’s largest Hindu temples on the outskirts of London.
“[He] is beneath arrest in Bangladesh and Hindus throughout Bangladesh are being subjected to demise, with their homes and temples being burnt,” Blackman informed MPs.
“There was in the present day (Thursday) an try in Bangladesh’s Excessive Court docket to rule that ISKCON needs to be banned from the nation, which is a direct assault on Hindus. There may be now a risk from India to take motion and now we have a accountability as a result of we enabled Bangladesh to be free and unbiased,” he mentioned.
The Opposition Conservative Get together MP burdened that it “can’t be acceptable that spiritual minorities are persecuted on this approach” and referred to as for freedom of faith to be preserved globally.
“We help freedom of faith or perception in every single place and that features Bangladesh. I’ll actually ask Overseas Workplace Ministers to have a look at coming ahead with an announcement about what is going on to Hindus in Bangladesh,” mentioned Lucy Powell in her response on behalf of the UK authorities because the Chief of the Home of Commons.
Blackman’s intervention was welcomed by the diaspora group Associates of India Society Worldwide (FISI) UK which condemned the quite a few assaults on Hindus and different minorities in Bangladesh, together with “arson, looting, theft, vandalism, and desecration of temples and deities”.
It follows a Ministry of Exterior Affairs (MEA) assertion calling on Bangladesh authorities to make sure the “security and safety of Hindus and all minorities, together with their proper of freedom of peaceable meeting and expression”.
The MEA assertion mentioned: “We’ve famous with deep concern the arrest and denial of bail to Shri Chinmoy Krishna Das, the Bangladesh Sammilit Sanatan Jagran Jote spokesperson. This incident follows the a number of assaults on Hindus and different minorities by extremist parts in Bangladesh.
“There are a number of documented instances of arson and looting of minorities’ properties and enterprise institutions in addition to theft and vandalism and desecration of deities and temples. It’s unlucky that whereas the perpetrators of those incidents stay at massive, fees needs to be pressed towards a non secular chief presenting reliable calls for by peaceable gatherings. We additionally observe with concern the assaults on minorities protesting peacefully towards the arrest of Shri Das.”
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