Saints come to street in Nepal over atrocities against Hindu minorities in Bangladesh

The protest, which started from the premises of the Janaki temple in the ancient city of Janakpur, chanted slogans demanding justice for Hindu youth Dipu Chandra Das, killed in Bangladesh.

The protest march was organised by Ramanandiya Vaishnav Sangh.

"The minority Hindus who now remain in Bangladesh and the radical, unruly mob mercilessly killed Dipu Chandra Das, a Dalit Hindu, by hanging him on a tree and setting fire. This is heart-wrenching and aches us to the core. Today, the saints, youths from the Hindu groups, came onto the street against the atrocities. I also have warned the Government of Nepal to pressure Bangladesh through every means possible; our Hindus, the baresark Hindu's are being killed, no one has the right to kill others," Ram Roshan Das, Uttaradhikari Mahant of the Janaki Temple, who also was the organiser of the protest, told ANI.

The protestors termed the incident inhumane and a crime against humanity committed in the name of religion. They shouted slogans demanding an immediate end to the violence against minority Hindus in Bangladesh and burnt the flag during the protests.

Dipu Chandra Das was lynched by a mob in Bangladesh's Mymensingh city last week following allegations of blasphemy, which has sparked outrage across Nepal and India.

As per the Minority Rights Group, a human rights organisation working globally with ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, the Hindu population of Bangladesh has suffered considerable harm as a consequence of political events since 1947.

According to the rights group based in Hungary, the Hindus in Bangladesh have been "particularly targeted during the Bangladesh Liberation War as many Pakistanis blamed them for the secession, resulting in targeted executions, rape and other human rights abuses."

The Hindu minorities, who consisted of 22 per cent of the total population of the (East Bengal) province according to the official 1951 census, the number depleted to 15 per cent by 1991, and in the 2011 census were numbered at just 8.5 per cent, the Minority Rights Group highlights.

"Since the beginning of the new millennium, the Hindu population has suffered significantly at the hands of Islamic extremists, resulting in their further exodus into West Bengal in India. Despite persistent persecution, Hindus have managed to gain some

political influence because of their geographical concentration in some regions. The oppression of Hindus in Bangladesh has been a constant feature in its history, both when it was still East Pakistan and since independence," the organisation highlights in its section about Hindus in Bangladesh. (ANI)