By Harish Velji
It is well known that Bangladesh formerly known as the East Pakistan gained its independence at the behest of the Indian armed forces.
There was a popular belief that the West Pakistan had neglected its east wing economically and linguistically.
When Bangladesh became an independent nation in 1971, the religious ethnic minorities celebrated. They celebrated because Bangladesh was no longer a fundamentalist Islamic country but a country adopting diverse religion.
At the time of partition the population made up of thirty seven percent Hindus, which is now reduced to just ten percent. Also there are other religious minorities such as Buddhists and Christians.
In 1970 when the Awami League won the election under the leadership of Sheik Mujibur Rehman, it was denied its chance to rule by the President Yahya Khan of Pakistan.
In fact he led an all out assault against the East Pakistan. This led to over ten million people fleeing to India. Most of them were Hindus. In fact since 1947 over thirty million Hindus have left formerly East Pakistan and now Bangladesh.
In between number of coups have taken place and rights of ethnic and religious minorities have flip flopped.
Now to placate the extremist who hold the fundamentalist form of Islam the country has reverted to purging the other religious minorities.
Australian Forum for Minorities in Bangladesh which is a non-profit organisation committed to work for the rights of the minorities (ethnic and religious) in Bangladesh by upholding the values of Universal Declaration of Human Rights held a forum organising a discussion on Human Rights Situation in Bangladesh to observe the World Human Rights Day.
Over one hundred observed this event in Ashfield.
Dr Ashit Maitra delivered the keynote speech on this occasion. He highlighted the importance of upholding the values of Universal Declaration of Human Rights in establishing true democracy in a country.
“It is important for an individual to play a significant role in the society in implementing the values of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” said Dr Maitra
Councillor Prabir Maitra of Parramatta Council described the importance of restoring the 1972 Constitution to establish the rights for every citizen of Bangladesh since secularism was one of the main pillars of that constitution.
He said “Bangladesh is a signatory of relevant international covenants and conventions but there has been no implementation of such conventions in practice.”
Ms Kabita Chakma of CHT Jumma Peoples Network of the Asia Pacific described how the state machinery was used for transmigration in the same country to reduce the indigenous people to mere minority. She said that proper implementation of the CHT Peace Treaty will help to establish the rights of the indigenous people in that region
Dr Samir Sarkar, President of the Forum, presided over the event and described how the legal system and constitutional loopholes are used to persecute the minorities.
In a recent report by Washington based Pew Research centre highly respected American think tank puts Bangladesh in the basket of high in social hostilities, meaning where large segments of the population want to protect the special place for one particular religion.
