Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) expresses grave concern and condemnation over the recent violence against Minority Communities at Chandpur, Chittagong and different places in the country.[1]

It has been reported in various media sources that groups of miscreants vandalised a Durga temple at Kachua upazilla, Chandpur on 28 February 2014 and set fire on houses in relation to the issue of casting votes at Patia, Chittagong on 27 February 2014.

According to ASK Documentation, 628 houses, 192 business institutions, 63 temples-Idols were destroyed, 106 people were injured and 2 people died out of fear in attacks during January 2014.

It has been also documented that 20 houses, 22 temples-idols were vandalised and 7 people were injured during the period of 1-26 February 2013.

According to different media reports and ASK Investigations, a majority of the perpetrators who were involved in the post-election communal violence at Dinajpur, Thakurgaon, Pabna, Jessore were not arrested and victims of those attacks are in extreme apprehension of further attacks.

We consider that these kinds of attack surely constitute violation of human rights as well as rights enshrined in the Constitution of Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh.

We would like to recall that, Article- 28 of the Constitution ensures that citizens must not be discriminated on the basis of religion or race and Article- 41(1) states that every citizen has the right to profess, practice or propagate any religion and every religious community has the right to establish, maintain and manage its religious institutions. But these constitutional safeguards are in question due to this communal violence and democratic process of the country might be hampered seriously if recurrence of such attack continues. We would like to stress that the government has its responsibility in this regard and they have not succeeded to take effective steps despite  drawing their attention several times.

Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) emphasise immediate and reliable investigation of the incidents and strongly urges the government to ensure exemplary punishment for the perpetrators to stop the recurrence of such heinous attacks on religious minorities. ASK also urges the local inhabitants and authority to ensure security measures for the protection of Minority communities. [2]