Landlord Fails In Rape Attempt, Kills Dalit Hindu Housewife In Sindh

November 30, 2013; Umerkot, Sindhudesh:
The Dalit-propaganda is one of the most favorite pastimes of the Islamists in the subcontinent. Like the Khalistani project, the Islamists run a parallel Dalitstani project to fool the two ferocious enemy of the Islamic jihad, who have fought densely against Islamists, the Sikhs and Dalits. That is why the Islamists have taken a different way to tackle these problem, they want to fool these two communities and brainwash them against so called upper caste Hindus. Thus the Islamists have been able to create a rift between these divisions and during the partition the Muslim League was able to defect a section of the Dalits against upper caste Hindus and they also sided the Muslim League’s Pakistan movement totally brainwashed by the Muslim League. The Bengal Schedule Caste Federation of West Bengal directed then by Jogen Mondal is a glaring example. The west Pakistani part of this game led a distance between the upper caste and lower cast communities among the Hindus in Pakistan. Also, in Pakistan any Hindu is insecure about his own life, how can he secure the others?
The greater victims of such divisive propaganda are the Dalits. The economically sound Hindus are 3rd class citizens in Pakistan, but the economically unsound Hindus, a big portion of them being Dalits are not even treated as animals. The treatment of the Dalit women at the hand of the Muslims there is unimaginable and on Thursday Sindh faced just another example of this scenario.

Landlord Fails In Rape Attempt, Kills Dalit Housewife in Sindh

A 24 years old Hindu housewife named Shrimati Kalpu Kolhi worked as peasant in the field owned by a landlord named Mohammed Khadim Shar. In Sindh, it came out in human rights investigations that the defenseless Dalit women are considered as sexually available and they are targeted with sexual violence by the Muslim community and the Dalits in particular and entire Hindu community in general are defenseless and voiceless and unable to oppose this considerations that led to atrocities on them. Mohammed Khadim Shar had his lust on the Shrimati Kalpu and time and again he asked for sexual favors however each time Shar was denied. The poverty of Kalpu and lack of economical choice prevented her from switching her workplace but her poverty was never a burden to retain her chastity. After a long session of frustration and anger and shame generated from constant denial and rejection from Mrs. Kalpu, Mohammed Khadim Shar finally decided to force her to establish physical relations with him. However Kalpu and her sister foiled the devilish rape attempt and they lodged an FIR against him alleging raoe attempt. Kalpu was cornered, she could know that this has to end somewhere and this is it. It frustrated Khadim a lot more and he attacked Kalpu and shot her to death. The incident happened in the Shadiply village of the Umerkot district in Sindh. Father of the murdered housewife Kalpu, Shri Ramesh Kumar Kolhi has registered another FIR of murder against Mohammed Khadim Shar in the local police station of Shadiply and Station House Officer Rasheed Chandio has said that an investigation is already underway.
It is noteworthy that the Dalits consist of more than one-third of the Pakistani Hindu population but the Pakistanis for propaganda purpose don’t consider them Hindus and try to Islamize them and 14 Lakh Dalits have not been included in the Hindu population in last census which counts Hindu population as 26 Lakh whereas its actually 40 Lakh. The Pakistani media every month publishes an article about the torture against Dalits in India however I have seen none of that. And most of those reports are fake and without any evidence, not a single photograph can found attached. But the Indian Muslims join hand with Pakistani propagandists to play the Dalit propaganda. Even the Pakistani movie makers make films like Ramchand Pakistani which shows that it’s the Hindus of India which torture the Dalits, and I am surprised to see that majority of the actors playing in the movie are Indians, the same Indians who expertise in playing in provocative films mocking Hinduism. I am surprised to see that the Dalits in India actually buy the bullshits propagated by Pakistani and Indian Muslims. They should sometime come to Pakistan and see how Islamists treat the Dalits who are being used as foot soldiers. Ask a Pakistani Dalit who lives under the feet of the Islamists, what is the consequence of falling in the trap of the Dalit propaganda and what it takes to see a propaganda of lies going on in full swing and scream of pain getting no voice at all.

Courtesy:covertwires dot com

Hindus come under attack in Bangladesh

The minority Hindus came under attack, allegedly by activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its students wing, in Patgram, northern Lalmonirhat district, for the second time in a month, major Bangladesh newspapers reported on Friday .

The attackers beat up women and children and torched and looted at least five shops and two houses at Ghoshpara village on the third day of the opposition-sponsored 71-hour blockade, said the dailies quoting police and eyewitnesses .

The incident fuelled concerns over a fresh spell of attacks on the minority members as men of the village have fled in fear.

No reason

Minority leaders alleged that the villages had come under attack for no specific reason. However, local union Parishad Chairman Ruhul Amin Babul said, taking the advantage of countrywide blockade they attacked the Hindus who do not belong to any political party. “They did so to create panic in the area and use that to their advantage,” the chairman concluded.

Another Hindu-populated village Shafinagar under the same district also came under attack allegedly by BNP and Jamaat-Shibir men on October 27, the first day of the opposition-called shutdown. The vandals beat 12 women as the males fled the scene.

Quoting police and eyewitnesses, newspapers said about 200 to 250 Jamaat-Shibir activists led by Shibir leader Rana Islam brought out a procession in the area and swooped on Hindus’ shops and houses. A number of aggrieved villagers alleged that some local Awami League men, too, were responsible for inciting the violence. 

Courtesy: The hindu

Shrinking Numbers and Growing Persecution Threaten Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan

Picture :J. K. Sharma, a Sikh magician at his shop in Shor Bazaar in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 7.


KABUL, Afghanistan — J.K. Sharma, a large Sikh man in a black turban, works out of a small room lined with jars and herbs in the ruined and dusty Shor Bazaar in Kabul. In a war-ravaged country where miracles are in short supply, Mr. Sharma makes a living as a magician, providing advice and talismans to Muslim Afghans for a fee.
On an August afternoon, Mr. Sharma, who refused to divulge his real name, stroked his salt-and-pepper beard as a nervous Afghan man sought help to getting the girl he loved to marry him in the face of parental objections. Mr. Sharma stared intently at the two dice with markings after he had rolled them a few times.
“Don’t worry, you will get the girl,” he declared with a broad smile. The magician charged the man 1,000 Afghan rupees, or $17, for an amulet.
Shor Bazaar, once a famed center for musicians and a home for businesses run by Afghan Hindus, is now the haunt of self-proclaimed magicians who are mostly Afghan Sikhs. Fortunetelling is one of the few occupations left for the Sikhs, who are on the verge of disappearing from Afghanistan, along with the Hindus.

Picture :Lynsey Addario for The New York Times "Professional musicians at a small shop in Shor Bazaar in Kabul, Afghanistan, on July 23, 2011."


Community leaders of these two religious minorities estimate that 35 years ago around 100,000 of them lived in Afghanistan. After three decades of fleeing from conflict to countries like India, Canada and Germany, only 3,000 are left. The majority of the 300 families remaining are Sikhs.
Mr. Sharma had also left with his family to seek asylum in India, but he returned to Afghanistan after failing to make a living in their new home. Every month, he remits a big part of his earnings to his family in India.
Most of the Hindus and Sikhs who remain in Afghanistan are weary of religious discrimination and absence of economic opportunities, and they are hoping to leave their country as anxieties grow about their prospects after American troops withdraw from Afghanistan at the end of 2014. In September, for instance, President Hamid Karzai had to issue a legislative decree to reserve a single seat for Sikh and Hindu Afghan nationals in the lower house of Parliament after lawmakers refused to do so.
Among those trying to get out of Afghanistan is Ram Prakash, who owns the oldest photography shop in Kabul established in 1955. With most of his family already in India, the elderly Mr. Prakash is only waiting for a good offer to sell his business, but none has come so far. “There is no point being emotional about it. Our shop is a famous institution and that also makes us targets,” he said.
Under the Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001, Hindus had to identify themselves by yellow markings on their forehead or wearing a red cloth. On a late afternoon in August, a few people lazing around the Asamai temple grounds in Kabul shared different memories of the time.
One man recalled that Hindus with a yellow dot could get away without a beard but that terrible retribution was unleashed on a Muslim who shaved. Another said that he was forced to convert to Islam by the Taliban and marry a Muslim woman because he was seen speaking to her in a shop.
In recent years, some Afghan Hindus and Sikhs have made their way back home, at least temporarily because of financial pressures. Most of those who returned to find work left their families behind.
But a few like Balram Dhameja, the caretaker of a Hindu temple in Kabul, came back with their daughters and wives. Mr. Dhameja returned to Afghanistan with his family after 14 years because he couldn’t make a living in India.
Mr. Dhameja said that he served in the Afghan police force when the country was led by the Moscow-backed President Mohammad Najibullah, who was toppled in 1992 by the America-backed mujahedeen, and hanged from a lamp post by the Taliban four years later.
The former police officer recalled fleeing to India in 1992 along with at least 15,000 other Hindu families. “It was easy to get refugee status then because the Indian government responded to it like an emergency,” he said. “The hard part was finding jobs to stay on and make a good life.”
Refugees say that India is slow to grant them citizenship, and without it, they have a difficult time finding work. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as of January 2013, there were 10,046 Afghan refugees and 958 Afghan asylum seekers living in India.
For over a decade, Mr. Dhameja sold tea in Faridabad on the outskirts of Delhi, but the family of five found it hard to cope with the expenses. In 2006, the rent of their apartment had gone up to 3,000 rupees ($50 at current exchange rates), from 500 rupees in 1992. They left in 2006 after his tea shop was demolished in a government raid on illegal constructions.
But in the long-term, Mr. Dhameja said he wanted to head back to India because he saw no future for his children in Afghanistan. He was trying to save money to send his 18-year-old son to find work in Germany in the next few months.
Fearing harassment, the majority of Hindu and Sikh families don’t send their children to schools in Afghanistan, especially the girls. They have for a long time demanded exclusive schools to be set up for their children.

 

 

Picture:Betwa Sharma Anarkali Kaur Honaryar, the only Sikh female in the Afghan Parliament, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 15.

 

Anarkali Kaur Honaryar, the only Sikh female in the Afghan Parliament, explained that such primary schools are running in Kabul and Jalalabad for the past two years but that it wasn’t possible to set up exclusive schools in provinces where only two or three families are staying.
For such places, Ms. Honaryar said, the Hindu and Sikh parents want their children to be registered in a government school until the sixth grade, or age 12, while being tutored privately in the Sikh temples.
“We want the young ones to be protected from any kind of teasing. But teenagers can take care of themselves better,” she said.
Even now when the country had more schools, Ms. Honaryar said that Hindus and Sikhs did not take education seriously. Instead, they had their girls married off by the age of 14, often driven by fear for their security, and sent their young boys to work.
The 36-year-old politician, who grew up in Khost Province said that her own family, who had studied in Afghanistan before and after the Taliban, was an example that education could be pursued despite obstacles.
When the Taliban took power, Ms. Honaryar had finished the 12th grade and was teaching in the local primary school while starting her first year studying mathematics in the government college of the country’s north Baghlan province.
Her father, an engineer, was fired from his job because only Muslims could work for the Taliban government. Ms. Honaryar left college and donned a burqa to attend vaccination courses at the local hospital in Baghlan. When they moved to Kabul, her sister privately tutored boys and girls of all religions.
Though the Taliban issued several warnings, Ms. Honaryar recalled, they never used violence to stop the classes. And after their rule ended, she got her degree in dentistry from Kabul University and then joined the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. President Karzai later chose her for Parliament. Her sister pursued law and her brother took up medical studies.
While she has buried her dream of becoming a pilot, Ms. Honaryar said she still planned to pursue law when she gets time from her political career.
“We have all been educated here even when times were very hard. Without education there will be no future for us,” she said. “Now, there are some dangers, but nothing so big to prevent children being sent to school.”
Harminder Kumar is a Hindu boy in Kabul who insisted on being sent to a regular school despite his family concerns. Mr. Kumar, 16, studies in the fourth grade because he has disrupted his schooling several times due to harassment. “I want to be a doctor. Going to a school with proper teachers is the only way of getting quality education,” he said.
The only Hindu boy in his school, Mr. Kumar said that he is often taunted over his religion and has even had a knife pulled on him three times. His mother has complained to the mothers of the bullies. And the principal and teacher of the school have intervened to protect him.
“But when you seek help they threaten you even more,” he said. “I have some friends in the school here as well. But to study more seriously, I think India will be better for me.”
Despite the bleak prospects that face Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan, a handful of these minorities have endured three decades of conflict to stay in their home country, having forged relationships with Muslims that eclipsed religious persecution.
One Sikh family lives quietly in a fortress-like home with high mud walls on the outskirts of Kabul. Guarding it is a Muslim family headed by Haji Faizal Rehman, who has served as chief custodian of their property and 24 hectares of farmlands for 17 years.
The Muslim family is left in charge when the Sikh family moves to India during the Afghan winter months. A large man with a bushy beard, Mr. Rehman said that in his employer’s absence, he had warded off bribes and intimidation by local mafia groups attempting to take over the land.
“We have a special bond of trust between us. I would never work for anyone else,” he said.
Betwa Sharma is a freelance journalist based in New Delhi.

 
Courtesy: india dot blogs dot nytimes dot com

Temple committee upsets over partial demolition work

KUALA LUMPUR: Part of the 101-year old Sri Muneswarar Kaliyaman Temple in Jalan P.Ramlee was demolished by City Hall officers yesterday.

Temple committee chairman R.A Balasubramaniam claimed the work which started at 7.30am, without any prior notice given to them.

 

 "No notice was given to us. The City Hall officers came and cordoned off the area and started to demolish the structures. They didn't tell us what was going on and they refuse to let us into the temple," he claimed. 

   

More than 300 officers from City Hall, police, Federal Territories Land and Mines Office, Syabas and Tenaga Nasional were at the temple site.

 

MIC National Youth head of social welfare bureau Arvind Krishnan said  the temple committee was scheduled to meet Deputy Federal Territories Minister Datuk Dr Loga Bala Mohan on Nov 19 to discuss the temple status.

 

"Why did the ministry agree to meet the temple committee if they were going to demolish the temple? We don't want an apology from the ministry. We want answers from them," he said.

   

Arvind also claimed that City Hall officers got tough with them, when they started asking about the demolition.

 

"We asked City Hall for the demolition order and they told us to ask land office. We then asked land office and were told that they didn't have the order. How can they conduct a demolition without and order and without informing the temple committee?" he claimed.

 

Arvind claimed the Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor had promised to gazette the site as a place of worship and beautify the area.

 

On Sept 2, Tengku Adnan had given his assurance, that the temple will not be demolished but only the canteen adjacent to the temple, which was built illegally, would be removed.

 

The Federal Territories Ministry could not be reached for comments. 

Courtesy :NST dot com

Hindus attacked in Pabna

'Jamaat-BNP men' use false Facebook post for rampage
Ahmed Humayun Kabir Topu, Pabna









An elderly woman laments over the loss of her home at Bonogram of Pabna after 25 houses belonging to Hindus were vandalised. Photo: Star

For Bonogram bazaar in Santhia upazila, about 40 kilometres from Pabna sadar, the day started with the usual hustle and bustle.
But things started to change around 10:00am as a group of people began distributing photocopies of what they said was a “Facebook page”. They claimed one Rajib Saha had maligned Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) in the page.
“None was given the chance to ask whether or not it was a faked Facebook posting,” said an eyewitness.
Rajib, son of Babul Saha, a shop owner in the bazaar, is a class-X student of Bonogram Miapur High School.
Soon, hundreds of people stormed Babul Saha’s house in Bonogram. Unable to find the boy, the mob got hold of Babul and took him to the bazaar. There, he was warned that he and his son would be tried for “defaming the prophet”.
Despite protesting repeatedly that his son was innocent, Babul was mercilessly hit and kicked upon. At one stage, some locals intervened to save him and confined him to a shop.
In the meanwhile, another gang, more aggressive and violent, set fire to Babul’s house. Later, more gangs joined in to attack the predominantly Hindu village and vandalised about 26 homesteads.
On information, over 150 Rab and police personnel arrived at the bazaar. As they brought Babul out of the shop, the mob started throwing brick chips and other objects at them.
It took the law enforcers over an hour to rescue Babul and take him into their custody at Ataikula Police Station.
Talking to The Daily Star at the police station, Babul claimed the men who attacked his house belong to local units of BNP and Jamaat.
Asked about his son, he said Rajib was on the run to save life.
“He was preparing for SSC examination. He can’t do anything like what the people here are alleging,” he said, adding the boy is a meritorious student.




Meanwhile, people from different villages blockaded the Pabna-Dhaka highway for over five hours till 5:00pm.
As police tried to remove the barricade, the violent crowds attacked them with brick chips and sticks. The cops had to charge batons and fire several teargas shells.
All the top police and district administration officials were on the spot trying to defuse the crisis.
The way the Hindu houses in Bonogram were attacked yesterday bore an eerie similarity with the communal violence against the Buddhist community in Ramu on September 29 last year. A Buddhist youth, Uttam Barua, was framed with a fake Facebook page carrying anti-Islamic contents to incite the communal violence.
Yesterday’s incident also followed the trend of recent Jamaat- Shibir-BNP attacks on the Hindu minorities across the country.
Locals of Bonogram said some known faces of Jamaat, Shibir and BNP led the attacks throughout the day.
Rajib’s classmate Rocky said, “We are sure the allegation against Rajib is cooked up by a vested quarter.”
The Daily Star has found that the Facebook page whose photocopies were used to incite the attacks on the Bonogram Hindu community has no links with Rajib.
The name of this page, written in Bangla, denigrates the prophet and therefore it is unprintable in the newspaper.
Opened on September 14, the page got 420 “likes” as of yesterday evening.
It does contain hateful posts, majority of which was issued by the administrator. Some people gave negative reactions to these posts, asking others to refrain from liking this page.
In fact, there was no single comment supporting the posts.
Interestingly, the page itself gave 30 “likes” on other pages that include “Ami Gorbito, Ami Musalman”, “Sammilito Islami Mancha”, Hadith of the Day and several other Islamic pages.
Again, it likes Atheist Bangladesh Fans and Dhormockery, Gonojagoron Mancha and Imran H Sarkar and at the same time Amar Desh acting editor Mahmudur Rahman.
It also likes a page called Moulavibazar High School.
Additional District Magistrate Munshi Muniruzzaman said so far they did not find any substance in the claims made against the schoolboy.
He said steps would be taken against the culprits under information technology act after probe.
“We know who attacked and vandalised our houses.” Paritosh Kumar, a resident of Bonogram Sahapara. But he would not mention any name.
Around 250 Hindu families live in Bonogram village, he said, adding that some 25 to 30 houses were completely ravaged. “Many other houses were also attacked.”
Bishnu Saha, 80, said she had never imagined anybody would destroy her house this way.
Chandan Kumar Chakrabarti, president of Hindu Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, said, “Conspirators are out to create a situation so that the Hindus can be attacked.”
He said a party involved in communal politics might have been behind the Bonogram violence.

Courtesy: The Dailystar dot Net

Man booked for stripping Hindu woman in bazaar sent to lock-up

There was a dispute between the Soomra community and the Mangrios over a plot of land, which might have been the motivation behind this episode. — File Photo

UMERKOT: A man allegedly involved in assaulting and stripping a Hindu woman in the bazaar of New Chhor town of Umerkot district was remanded in police custody for three days on Wednesday.
The suspect was arrested on Tuesday night after a case was registered against him under Sections 354-A (assault or use of criminal force to woman and stripping her of her clothes) and 337-A (punishment of shajjah) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The New Chhor police produced the suspect in the court of the 2nd judicial magistrate, who gave the suspect in police custody on a three-day remand.
According to the mother of the victim, her 30-year-old married daughter, resident of Senhoi village near Chhor, had come to visit her some days back for Diwali. In the evening she and her daughter went to buy some ornaments to the goldsmith bazaar, where the suspect followed them, grabbed the young woman from the hair and dragged her.
Resultantly, her shirt tore and fell apart.
She, however, stated in the FIR that some citizens intervened and saved her daughter and covered her with a piece of cloth. Also the suspect escaped, abusing and threatening them. Minority MNA of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Lal Malhi, PPP minority MPA Dr Khatumal Jewan, nationalist leader Abdul Wahid Arisar, local non-governmental organisations and civil society members of Umerkot have condemned the incident and asked the authorities to bring the culprit to justice after a proper investigation.
Umerkot SSP Abdul Qayyoom Pitafi and investigating police official Altaf Shah told Dawn over the phone that area people informed him and the New Chhor SHO that there was a dispute between the Soomra community and the Mangrios over a plot of land, which might have been behind this episode.
Apparently the woman or her family had nothing to do with the dispute.

Courtesy: dawn dot com

Besakih, Mount Agung ‘must remain sacred’

Mother Temple: Hundreds of Hindu devotees perform a ritual that is part of the mapepada ceremony, itself part of Karya Agung Panca Bali Krama, held every ten years at Besakih Temple in Karangasem regency. BD/Zul Trio Anggono
Numerous Hindu high priests and community leaders have strongly rejected the central government’s plan to include Besakih Temple and Mount Agung, both in Karangasem regency in east Bali, in the development of national strategic tourism plan (KSPN).

Sunday saw a high-level meeting of highly respected high priests, Pasamuhan Sabdha Pandita Parisada Hindu Dharma Indonesia (PHDI), from which the priests issued a statement rejecting any idea of transforming the two sacred sites into the KSPN proposed by the government.

The PHDI urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry to revoke ministerial decree No. 50 issued in 2011 on the inclusion of Besakih and Mt. Agung as KSPN for the 2010-2025 period.

The PHDI also asked the provincial administration to retain the sacred site status of Besakih Temple and Mt. Agung as per bylaw No. 16/2009.

PHDI representative, high priest Ida Pedanda Gde Ketut Sebali Tianyar Arimbawa, made a strong argument saying that the Balinese government had to implement policies and measures to retain the sanctity of the two sites.

Five of the most influential high priests — including Ida Pendanda Gde Bang Buruwan Manuaba, Ida Pandita Mpu Siwa Putra Parama Dhaksa, Ida Pandita Rsi Hari Anom Palguna and Ida Pandita Jaya Sattwika Nanda, signed the statement.

Believed to have been built in prehistoric times, Besakih is the mother temple and largest and most holy worship place for Balinese Hindus. It was built 1,000 meters up the slope of Mt. Agung, a mountain deemed holy by the Balinese.
Special offerings: Hindu devotees prepare offerings inside Besakih Temple. Numerous Hindu high priests in Bali have rejected the central government’s idea to include the sacred sites of Besakih Temple and Mount Agung in the strategic tourism development plan. BD/Anggara Mahendra

“Mount Agung and Besakih are Huluning Jagat Bali — the center of the universe for Balinese Hindus. It is the center of the godly power that protects Bali and its people,” explained Tianyar, adding any attempt to include them in a tourist plan would reduce the sanctity of these holiest of sites.

“It will deeply affect the very soul of the Balinese Hindus,” the priest stated.

The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry had previously designated several places in Bali as part of the KSPN, including Besakih and Mt. Agung in Karangasem; Kintamani and Lake Batur in Bangli; Pemuteran and the Menjangan islands in Buleleng; as well as Sanur, Kuta and Nusa Dua resort areas.

According to the ministry, the KSPN would cover tourist areas in which all elements and components of tourism had certain characteristics, specifically natural and cultural.

The ministry designated 88 KSPN across the country, however, only 16 of these, including those in Bali, are top priority. Other KSPNs are Lake Toba in North Sumatra, Borobudur Temple in Central Java, the Thousand Islands and old town of Jakarta, Mt. Bromo and Tengger, Mt. Semeru in East Java and Komodo Island in East Nusa Tenggara.

Separately, Bagus Sudibya, veteran tourism practitioner in Bali, warned the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry to be more sensitive in dealing with religious sites.

“Up to the present, the ministry has never clearly explained what the KSPN are. Or how it will affect an area once it is included in the plan. Moreover, the ministry’s staff have never involved tourism practitioners in Bali, or religious and community leaders,” Sudibya said.

Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika had previously said that KSPN were central government programs.

In the KSPN, he said, there were no specific words referring to Besakih Temple or Mt. Agung, just the development of Karangasem regency for spiritual tourism. “We, the provincial administration, have never proposed Besakih Temple and Mt. Agung be included in the KSPN,” Pastika insisted.

Courtesy:The Jakarta Post

Hindu community shops targeted in Lalmonirhat

At least 18 shops at a local bazar of Patgram upazila were vandalised and looted

Masked criminals attacked nearly two dozen shops of the Hindu community at a remote village in Lalmonirhat on Sunday night, fuelling concerns over a fresh spell of attacks on the members of the community.
At least 18 shops at a local bazar of Shafinagar village of Bawra union, in Patgram upazila, were vandalised and looted, causing an estimated Tk3m in damage. The attack was allegedly launched by activists of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami.
The victims said the attackers had threatened them with “fatal consequences” if they reported the incident or disclosed their identities to the police or the press.
There are about 52 Hindu families living in the village and nearly half of the 50 shops situated in the bazar are either owned or rented by the Hindu villagers, who had been known for living peacefully side by side with their Muslim neighbours.
On that night, however, only the shops owned by the Hindus were targeted, and three shops operated by them were spared because those belonged to the Muslim community.
A victim, wishing anonymity, held the BNP and Jamaat-Shibir activists responsible for the attack and said he and his family still felt “insecure” as the attackers maintained “a heavy presence” in the area even after the incident.
Another victim, also refusing to be named, said the opposition activists first entered the bazar shouting slogans in support of the hartal, but all hell broke loose when some of them, wearing masks, suddenly walked out of the procession and started vandalising shops.
“Hartal supporters launched a premeditated attack on those shops and looted valuables worth millions. They even tried to attack local Hindu villagers but were fended off by the latter,” Sanjoy Dutta, general secretary of Awami League-Bawra unit said.
However, President of BNP-Bawra unit Shamsul Alam denied allegations of BNP involvement in the incident but refused to comment on Jamaat involvement.
The incident was confirmed by Bawra UP Chairman Habibur Rahman Bosuniya, also a local Jatiya Party leader, who accused police of “negligence” for their failure to reach the spot until on Monday afternoon.
In this regard, Sohrab Hossain, officer in charge of Patgram police station, said he had received reports on the incident in time but could not send police teams at the spot because of “manpower shortage.”

Backlash in Jhenaidah
Several business establishments of Hindu community and local Awami League supporters came under attack at the Hariankundu upazila town in Jhenaidah on Monday afternoon after the murder of a local BNP leader earlier in the day.
Sources said a group of unknown criminals killed BNP leader and Daulatpur UP Chairman Abul Hossain at a local marketplace in Hariankundu, provoking a violent backlash from the opposition activists who went on to damage several shops, set fire to another one, and loot valuables.
Most of the shops were closed due to the opposition’s nationwide hartal. Sukesh Chandra Karmnaker, a jewellery businessman, said about 20 youths launched the attack soon after the murder, and his was one of stores damaged during that time.
He also said the attackers had targeted only shops owned by Awami League supports and members of the Hindu community.
Fearing further violence, local administration in the evening imposed section-144 in the town for an indefinite period.
Courtesy: Dhaka Tribune