Hindus constitute about 8 per cent of Muslim-majority Bangladesh’s 170 million people and have historically largely supported Hasina’s Awami League party, which identifies as largely secular.
The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council wrote to Yunus on Friday imploring him to protect the minorities, saying hundreds of Hindu homes, businesses and temples have been attacked this week.
Hundreds of Hindus shouted slogans demanding peace during a protest march in Dhaka on Friday.
Human Rights Watch said Yunus’ government needs to address the lawlessness.
“It is crucial to immediately bring public order and protect vulnerable communities, including Hindu minorities, who have come under attack,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, Asia deputy director for the human rights body.
In the absence of police, students have formed groups to guard neighbourhoods in Dhaka.
Television images showed students and youngsters, armed with sticks, controlling traffic at checkpoints and checking vehicles. They were also out at markets, checking food prices with vendors after reports of a steep rise.
Most police stations across Bangladesh have been deserted in recent days as police officers faced public outrage because of a crackdown on protesters in Hasina’s last days in power, witnesses said. Weapons and ammunition were also stolen from the stations, local media reported.
“Now they are being attacked, thanas (police stations) are being attacked. How will these poor fellows go about?” said Hossain.
Some plainclothes police returned to duty in Dhaka on Friday, according to a Reuters witness, with paramilitary forces seen guarding some police stations.
Out of six police stations in the Tejgaon division of Dhaka, three fully resumed operations on Friday. Work was ongoing to restore the three others, which were damaged.
“Today, we have resumed activities with the support of military forces. I request all citizens to visit the police station; we are ready to serve you,” Azimul Haque, the deputy commissioner of the division, told Reuters.
The student-led movement started with demonstrations against quotas in government jobs before spiralling into violent protests to oust Hasina. About 300 people died and thousands were injured during the agitation.
Hasina will return to Bangladesh when the caretaker government decides on holding elections, her son said, but it was not clear if the 76-year-old would stand.
Speaking to the Times of India daily, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, who is based in the United States, said, “She will go back to Bangladesh the moment the interim government decides to hold an election”.
Joy was not asked whether Hasina, who ran Bangladesh for 20 of the last 30 years, would contest the elections. “My mother would have retired from politics after the current term,” he said.
Source: CNA
