Two days after India flagged the “unremitting hostility” against minorities in Bangladesh, Dhaka on Sunday rejected the remarks and described them as “inaccurate, exaggerated or motivated”, reported The Daily Star.
SM Mahbubul Alam, the spokesperson for the Bangladeshi foreign ministry, added that the statements “misrepresent the country’s longstanding tradition of communal harmony”.
On Friday, India’s Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal condemned the lynching of Dipu Chandra Das, a Hindu man, in Bangladesh, saying that continued hostilities against minorities in the country, including Hindus, Christians and Buddhists, at the hands of extremists was a matter of great concern.
Das was accused of blasphemy and beaten to death by a mob in Mymensingh district on December 18, after which his body was allegedly tied to a tree and set on fire. Eighteen persons have been taken into custody for the lynching.
“We condemn the recent gruesome killing of a Hindu youth in Mymensingh and expect the perpetrators of the crime to be brought to justice,” Jaiswal said.
The spokesperson also claimed that independent sources had documented more than 2,900 incidents of violence against minorities in Bangladesh during the tenure of the interim government headed by Muhammad Yunus.
Alam claimed on Sunday that Jaiswal’s remarks do not reflect facts, reported The Daily Star.
“With much regret, we note systematic attempts to portray isolated criminal acts as persecution of Hindus and to maliciously use them to propagate anti-Bangladesh sentiments in different parts of India,” he added.
The Bangladeshi spokesperson also said that there was a “selective and unfair bias in certain quarters” and claimed that isolated incidents were amplified to incite Indians against Bangladesh, its diplomatic missions and other establishments in the country.
Referring to the death of another Hindu man, Amrit Mondal, alias Samrat, Alam said that he was a listed criminal and was killed “when he was committing extortion with his Muslim accomplice”, reported The Indian Express.
He said that the accomplice had been arrested.
“To portray this criminal act through the lens of minority treatment is not factual but misleading,” added Alam.
Mondal was beaten to death by a mob in Rajbari’s Pangsha Upazila on Wednesday. The police said that they rescued Mondal and took him to hospital, where doctors declared him dead.
The man was accused in several criminal cases, including matters relating to murder and extortion filed in 2023, ANI quoted the Bangladeshi government as having said.
On Thursday, the interim government in Bangladesh condemned Mondal’s killing but said the incident was not communally motivated.
Dhaka said that it had “noted with great concern” that a “certain segment has made the unholy attempt to highlight the religious identity of the slain person and describe it as a communal attack”. It had urged “all concerned sections” to behave responsibly.
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