For nearly a week, India’s eastern neighbour Bangladesh has been rocked by communal violence targeting its Hindu minority as they celebrate...
For nearly a week, India’s eastern neighbour Bangladesh has been rocked by communal violence targeting its Hindu minority as they celebrated the festival of Durga Puja. Mob violence started after rumours spread through social media that a copy of the Quran had been desecrated at a puja pandal .
On Thursday, the country’s prime minister Sheikh Hasina, speaking to devotees at Bangladesh’s most prominent Hindu temple in Dhaka, promised that the people responsible for the violence would be “hunted down”. It was a rare statement in South Asia where majoritarian violence is often simply ignored in messages by the top-most authorities.
However, Hasina also ended up inexplicably laying part of the blame for her country’s domestic troubles on India’s doorstep. “Our neighbouring country must also cooperate [in fighting communalism],” she said. “They must make sure that nothing is done there [in India] which affects our country and hurts our Hindu community.”
Delhi-Dhaka discord
India’s official response on the other hand was the polar opposite, taking care to not step on Bangladesh’s toes. Delhi, in fact, praised Dhaka. “We note that the government of Bangladesh has reacted promptly to ensure control of the situation including the deployment of law and order enforcement machinery,” the Modi government said on Thursday.
He added: “We also...
