Islamic radicals in Bangladesh threaten to kill Hindus if ISKCON not banned by interim govt

Various Bangladeshi Muslim organisations earlier had put pressure on the Mohammad Yunus-led interim government to ban ISKCON.

In a latest development, the Islamic radicals in Bangladesh have threatened to kill Hindus if ISKCON is not banned by interim government in the country. These radical Islamist groups are demanding a complete ban on International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), with a video threatening to kill its devotees, according to reports.  Various Bangladeshi Muslim organisations earlier also put pressure on the Mohammad Yunus-led interim government to ban ISKCON. 

In the recent months, Islamists have burnt down dozens of Hindu temples in Bangladesh, including the ISKCON temple and the Bangladeshi police had labelled ISKCON a “terrorist organisation". 

Reacting to the developments, India had in October condemned the ongoing attacks on Hindu temples in Bangladesh and termed it “deplorable" and urged the neighbouring country to ensure the “safety and security of Hindus and all minorities" amid Durga Puja celebrations.

The reaction from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) came a day after the theft of a golf crown of Goddess Kali, which had been gifted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, from the revered Jeshoreshwari Kali temple in the southwestern Satkhira district of Bangladesh.

Earlier this month, thousands of minority Hindus rallied to demand that the interim government in Muslim-majority Bangladesh protect them from a wave of attacks and harassment and drop sedition cases against Hindu community leaders.

About 30,000 Hindus demonstrated at a major intersection in the southeastern city of Chattogram chanting slogans demanding their rights while police and soldiers guarded the area.

Other protests were reported elsewhere in the country. Hindu groups say thousands of attacks against Hindus have happened since early August when the secular government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was overthrown and Hasina fled the country following a student-led uprising.

Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel peace laureate named to lead an interim government after Hasina's downfall, says those figures have been exaggerated. Hindus make up about 8% of the country's nearly 170 million people, while Muslims are about 91%.

The country's influential minority group Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council has said that there have been more than 2,000 attacks on Hindus since Aug 4.

Hindus and other minority communities say the interim government hasn't adequately protected them and that hardline Islamists are becoming increasingly influential since Hasina's ouster.