DURGA Puja, the largest religious festival of Bengali Hindus, is fast approaching. And, rights groups are voicing security concern, fearing attacks on temples and festival sites. Maitree Jatra, a platform for the protection of minority rights, raised its concern at a press conference in Dhaka on September 20, urging the government to take urgent preventive steps to ensure that Durga Puja is held without violence. The concerns are not unfounded given that a number of incidents of idol vandalisation that have already been reported. An unmamed group on September 16 vandalised two idols at a temple at Mirpur in Kushtia and stole a security camera. Besides, attacks on shrines and such places of other minority communities have continued unabated since the interim government was installed in August 2024. Analysing media reports on violence during Durga Puja in the past decade, Maitree Jatra also provided the government with a map marking the districts at risks and according to the vulnerability mapping, five districts 鈥� Dhaka, Rangpur, Jashore, Chandpur and Noakhali 鈥� are the most vulnerable to sectarian violence. The government should seriously take into account the data provided by the rights group and take extraordinary measures to protect the religious sites of the Hindus.
All authorities concerned, from the home affairs adviser to the inspector general of police, have repeatedly said that they have taken measures to prevent any violence during Durga Puja. Yet, on September 20, seven idols at a temple at Sarishabari in Jamalpur were vandalised, suggesting that the measures are not strict enough. The government has so far failed to prevent any violence of a communal nature and even when it has taken actions, it has always been after the commission of crimes.聽The actions are also restricted to isolated arrests while investigation and legal proceedings are tangled in intentional and unintentional legal bureaucracy. The rights group has, therefore, drawn attention of the government to failures to take action against the people involved in such communal attacks. The government should also give especial attention to the issue of religious freedom because many vested interests in the post-uprising period have launched disinformation campaigns and tried to exploit the minority issue to create political instability. The government has been more focused on disputing claims of communal attacks than addressing the security concerns of the minority communities.
The government should, under the circumstances, take extraordinary measures in ensuring security in the districts identified as risky for communal violence by the rights group Maitree Jatra. The government must have a foolproof preventive mechanism, foil any plot of communal violence and step up security efforts across the country.
