Bangladesh Sammilito Sanatani Jagran Jote on Tuesday said that over 700 Durga Puja mandaps were vulnerable in the country.
The platform came up with the information at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity ahead of Durga Puja, the biggest religious festival of the Hindu community.
They also placed a five-point demand that included ensuring peaceful celebration of Durga Puja, deployment of the army at vulnerable mandaps, immediate steps by the interim government to implement the alliance鈥檚 earlier eight-point demand, and inclusion of the Sanatani community in all spheres of national life to build a secular and non-discriminatory state.
Jote leaders said that the previous regime failed to provide proper security during Durga Puja, exposing the community to attacks, looting, killings, sexual assaults, idol desecrations, while temples were vandalised, arson attacks made on homes and businesses and Hindu women and girls endured sexual assaults.
Yet no perpetrators of such attacks against minorities have ever been brought to justice, they alleged.
They also demanded unconditional release of the alliance spokesperson, Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari.
In a written statement, Pradeep Kanti Dey, a member of the Jote, stated that reports of idol vandalism had already come from five districts.
鈥榃e submitted a list of vulnerable mandaps to the government and urged sufficient security arrangements, including CCTV cameras, funded by the state,鈥� Padeep said.
Alliance member Prosenjit Kumar Halder outlined an eight-point demand to protect the rights and safety of religious minorities in Bangladesh that include formation of an independent investigation commission and speedy trial tribunals, enactment of a minority protection law and formation of a separate ministry for minority affairs.
Their other demands are improving the Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian Welfare Trusts; protecting and recovering Debottor properties; proper implementation of the vested property return act; establishment of prayer rooms in educational institutions and modernising the Sanskrit and Pali education boards.
They also demanded three-day government holiday for Durga Puja and appropriate holidays for other religious festivals of the minorities.聽
