Originally published at The Crux
Read more...
Indigenous student-leaders and young people rallied in Bangladesh this week to protest what they say is the government’s failure to protect indigenous peoples and religious minorities.
The human chain protest outside the National Museum in the capital, Dhaka, on August 18, followed an incident in which a mob attacked a Christian village after the body of a Muslim businessman, 40-year-old Belal Hossain, was discovered in there, leading to a mob attack and looting.
The village of Gazarikona is in the northern part of Bangladesh, a majority-Muslim country of roughly 180 million people.
“A body was found and the entire village was attacked based on it, and the villagers were detained without any evidence. This cannot be the behavior of a civilized country,” Garo indigenous leader Alik Mree told Crux Now.
Mree claimed the body had been moved to the village post mortem and used as a pretext for violent religious persecution.
“This body was brought from somewhere else and left in the indigenous village and a planned attack was carried out, a planned loot was carried out,” Mree said, adding that “religion was used for this attack.”
“This state has failed to provide security to indigenous and religious minorities,” he
