Hotels and restaurants in Assam’s Barak Valley on Friday said that they would not serve guests from Bangladesh till alleged attacks on Hindus and other religious minorities in the neighbouring country came to a halt, PTI reported.
The All Tripura Hotel and Restaurant Owners’ Association and a hospital in West Bengal’s Kolkata have also announced similar bans on services to Bangladeshi nationals in view of the incidents of violence against minorities and insults meted out to the Indian flag.
“The situation of Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh is concerning,” Barak Valley Hotel and Restaurant Association chief Babul Rai said on Friday, according to PTI.
He added: “We have, therefore, decided to stop hosting any national from that country in all the three districts of Barak Valley until the situation improves and atrocities on the Hindus stop. This is our form of protest.”
Barak Valley comprises the three districts of Cachar, Sribhumi (formerly Karimganj) and Hailakandi. It also shares a 129-km-long border with the Sylhet region in Bangladesh.
Rai said that citizens of Bangladesh should ensure that stability returned to their country. “Only if the situation improves, we can reconsider our decision,” he added, according to PTI.
Following the collapse of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government in August, several parts of Bangladesh reported incidents of violence against religious minorities.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in August urged Muhammad Yunus, the head of Bangladesh’s interim government, to ensure the safety of Hindus and other minorities. Yunus had claimed at the time that reports of attacks on religious minorities in Bangladesh had been exaggerated.
ISKCON claims temple set on fire
On Saturday, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, or ISKCON, claimed that one of its temples and a centre in Bangladesh were destroyed after miscreants set it on fire, The Indian Express reported.
The development came days after three Hindu monks were arrested on charges of sedition in the past week in the neighbouring country.
“It seems that atrocities against minorities in Bangladesh are continuing unabated,” said Radharamn Das, vice-president of ISKCON in Kolkata, according to the newspaper. “Today, in the wee hours, our centre and temple were burnt down. We are deeply pained,”
He claimed that the incident took place between 2 am and 3 am on Saturday.
“Another ISKCON Namhatta Centre burned down in Bangladesh,” Das said in a post on social media. “The Deities of Sri Sri Laxmi Narayan and all items inside the temple, were burned down completely. The center is located in Dhaka.”
He added: “Early morning today, between 2-3 AM, miscreants set fire to the Shri Shri Radha Krishna Temple and the Shri Shri Mahabhagya Lakshmi Narayan Temple, which fall under the Hare Krishna Namhatta Sangha, located in Dhour village, under then jurisdiction of Turag Police Station, Dhaka district.”
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