MUSLIM
HATE OF HINDUS
Third day of clashes in Bangladesh over Koran
'desecration'
15 October 2021
AFP News
Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at
thousands of protesters in Bangladesh's two main cities on Friday, in a third
day of religious disturbances in the Muslim-majority nation, authorities said.
The protests began on Wednesday after footage
emerged of a Koran being placed on the knee of a god during celebrations for
the Hindu festival of Durga Puja. Hindus make up 10 percent of the population.
At least four people were killed late Wednesday
when police opened fire on a crowd of around 500 people attacking a Hindu
temple in Hajiganj, one of several towns hit by the
disturbances.
Two Hindus were also killed and some 150 others
were injured across the country, community leader Gobinda
Chandra Pramanik told AFP, with at least 80 makeshift
temples attacked. Authorities did not confirm the toll.
On Friday up to 2,500 Muslim worshippers
gathered outside Baitul Mukarram Masjid, Bangladesh's
largest mosque in central Dhaka, demanding "exemplary punishment" for
the "desecration" of the Islamic holy book.
"They brought out a procession and then
hurled sandals and bricks at our officers. We fired tear shells and rubber
bullets to disperse them," Sazzadur Rahman,
Dhaka's deputy police commissioner, told AFP.
He said at least five officers were injured and
three protesters were held.
An AFP photographer at the scene said more than
5,000 people joined the protests.
In Chittagong, meanwhile, police fired 50
rounds of blanks to disperse hundreds of Muslim protesters who hurled missiles
at officers guarding a makeshift Hindu temple, local police official Bijoy Basak said.
High-speed mobile phone internet services were
shut down across the country in an apparent bid to prevent spread of violence.
And amid concern over the
"disturbing" violence from Hindu-majority neighbour
India, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina met leaders of the community on
Thursday and promised stern action.
"So far around 90 people have been
arrested. We will also hunt down all the masterminds," Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said.
The Hindu minority, who number around 17
million, have faced sporadic violence in recent years, often sparked by rumours spread on social media.
Leader of
radical Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam, which is
leading riots against PM Modi’s Bangladesh visit, arrested in 2020 violence
case
Islamist
organization Hefazat-e-Islam of which Mamunul is the joint secretary is said to be the instigator
behind violent riots and targeted attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh after Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Muslim-majority nation.
20 April, 2021
Mamunul Haque, an influential leader of hardcore
Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam in Bangladesh,
was arrested by
Dhaka police on Sunday on the charges of instigating violence, attempt to
murder, assault and vandalism relating to a case filed last year. Harunur Rashid, a senior Dhaka Metropolitan Police
official, informed in a short briefing that Haque was arrested from a madrassa
in the capital of Dhaka’s Mohammadpur area.
The Islamist
organization Hefazat-e-Islam of which Mamunul is the joint secretary is said to be the instigator
behind violent riots and targeted attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh after Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Muslim-majority nation.
Several other Hifazat leaders have been accused in several cases,
including planned attacks on police and police stations and vandalism which are
being investigated.
More than 300
people have been arrested till now for their involvement in the cases of arson,
vandalism and violence during the period 26-28 March in various towns of
Bangladesh.
Mamunul Haq has been sent
on seven-day remand after the police produced him before the court on Monday.
The Chief of
the Hefazat-e-Islam Junayed
Babunagari in a video message demanded unconditional
release of all the religious leaders of the organization including Mamunul Haque and the party’s Organising
Secretary Azizul Haque Islamabadi.
Violence in
Bangladesh
Bangladesh’s
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had extended an invitation to India’s PM Narendra
Modi to join a March 26 celebration of the country’s 50th anniversary of
independence. The radical group had warned the government of bloodshed if the
visit took place.
The two-day
visit was overshadowed by the violence. At least 17 supporters of Hefazat-e-Islam were killed in separate clashes with police
as they attacked a police station and other government buildings, and blocked
highways elsewhere in the country to wreck havoc in
the country to supposedly oppose the visit.
Established in
2010, the Hefazat-e-Islam controls
the largest number of madrasas running into thousands in Bangladesh. The
organization came into prominence after its hardline Islamist demands during
the 2013 Shahbagh protest movement in Dhaka.
In its 13 point demand, Hefazat-e-Islam
demanded an anti-blasphemy law with death penalty as punishment, ban on
erecting sculptures, declaring Ahmadiyas as
non-Muslims and several restrictions on social gathering between men and women
among others.
Mamunul, who is the joint secretary general of this
radical group, is infamous for his hate speech and aggressive sermons in
religious congregations and social media. For the same, he enjoys immense
popularity among hardliners.
Haque and his
associates also led a recent campaign against building a sculpture of
independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina’s father, saying sculptures
are un-Islamic following which the government had to back off.
Attack on
Hindu village
The same
radical Islamist group was
responsible for ransacking over 80 houses of Hindus in the village of Sunamganj, Bangladesh after a young Hindu man from the
village, uploaded a video criticizing Mamunul Haque’s
speech.
Many local
Hindus had to flee their homes fearing for life which gave the attackers an
opportunity to ransack and loot their homes.
Bangladesh:
Muslim mob attacks, burns houses of Hindus over a Facebook post about Charlie
Hebdo cartoons
In a video that has now gone viral on social
media, a violent Islamist mob, wearing skull caps and brandishing sticks, logs
and stones, could be seen vandalising the houses of
Hindu families. Over 10 houses were vandalised and
burned by the violent Muslim mob.
11-2-2020
OpIndia
In a shocking display of intolerance and
bigotry, a group of radical Islamists attacked over 10 Hindu
families on Sunday at Korbanpur village under Muradnagar Upazila in the Comilla
district of Bangladesh.
As per reports, the Hindu households were
selectively vandalised and later set on fire after a
man allegedly expressed solidarity with France and defended the Charlie Hebdo
cartoons in Facebook comments. The man has been identified as one Shankar Debnath.
The Islamist mob burnt down the office of the local Union Parishad Chairman Bankumar Shiv, his house, Shankar’s house and that of other
Hindu families in the area.
In a video that has now gone viral on social
media, a violent Islamist mob, wearing skull caps and brandishing sticks, logs
and stones, could be seen vandalising the houses of
Hindu families. Twitter user Joy Chakraborty has claimed that the police has taken no action against the arsonists and the vandals
but instead jailed two Hindus over comments on Facebook. He emphasised
that the carnage lasted for a whopping 5 hours. On Sunday, Shankar and another
man named Anik Bhowmik were arrested for allegedly
‘hurting religious sentiments’.
The Fire
Department was called in to extinguish the fire. On receiving information about
the incident, Bangra police, SP Syed Nurul Islam, DC
Abul Fazal Mir, and other high-ranking officials visited the crime scene. ASP Azimul Ahsan stated, “A group of locals of Korbanpur village torched the office of local Union
Parishad Chairman Bankumar Shiv, the house of Shankar
Debnath, and also vandalized several other Hindu households on Sunday
afternoon…We have deployed additional force in the area to maintain law and
order.”
On October 25,
a third-year Zoology student, Tithy Sarker, of the Jagannath University (JnU)
in Dhaka in Bangladesh, went missing after she allegedly made derogatory remarks against Islam and
Prophet Muhammad. She was earlier suspended from her university on October 23
for hurting religious sentiments. According to reports, she was on her way to
the police station and then, was going to go visit a Durga Puja Mandap.
Ever since
then, she has been missing, Dhaka Tribune quoted her parents as saying. They
have also claimed that since she went missing, her phone has also been switched
off and she is completely untraceable. She had made it clear to the police that
the objectionable comments were made by an unidentified hacker using
her account.
Bangladesh: In
May 2020 alone, Islamists vandalised at least ten
temples.
The World
Hindu Federation's Bangladesh chapter has released a document listing all
incidents of atrocities against religious minorities, especially Hindus in
Bangladesh in the month of May.
OpIndia
6-17-20
The Bangladesh
chapter of the World Hindu Federation has compiled a series of incidents
conducted by religious fanatics against Hindus in the country in the last one
month including religiously targeted looting, murders, land grabbing efforts,
temples attacks, idols vandalisation, families being
forced to leave the country and targeted abductions and rapes of Hindu women.
In a press
release on June 11, the federation listed all the atrocities against Hindus in
the month of May. Amongst those, it mentions 10 incidents where Hindu temples
were demolished and its idols were vandalized in just one month.
May 3: A local
criminal Mamun and his goons attacked and vandalised Purna Chandra Roy’s house and temple for not paying one
lakh taka at Dinajpur municipality area.
May 4: At
around 3 in the morning, 40 people with weapons had attacked a Buddhist
monastery at Bibirbila Shanti Bihar at Lohagara in Chittagong. They vandalized the temple’s
windows, walls, furniture and a Buddha statue. A case by the Bibbili Shanti Bihar Managing Committee was filed in this
regard.
According to
the official statement of the case, an extremist,
radical and terrorist group of about 30/35 people, led by radical defendants Helal Uddin and Jamal Uddin equipped with firearms, iron
rods, hammer, sharp weapon and sticks came to the tri-junction on the north
side of the temple, Chanting slogans against the Buddhist the radicals attacked
the temple and vandalised the idols and furniture.
May 5: Some
unknown miscreants vandalized the idol of Kumudganj
Bazar Kali Mandir at Bakaljora Union of Durgapur Upazila in Netrokona district.
May 8: In
another similar case, some religious fanatics vandalized the idols of Jidhuri Saha Para temple at Belkuchi Chala in Sirajganj
district. Then, the leaders of Sirajganj district’s World Hindu
Federation (WHF) Bangladesh Chapter visited the temple and demanded
immediate arrest the culprits.
May 9: In yet
another incident, the idol of a 100-year-old Kali temple was vandalised. Miscreants entered the temple on Saturday night
and vandalized the Goddess Kali idol in the temple situated in Nagdara village of Kalmakanda Upazila in Netrokona district.
This incident had created immense panic amongst the Hindus residents in the
district.
May 10:
Terrorists attacked Hindu families and vandalized houses and temples over
comments on Facebook at Tatikona village of Chhatak Municipality in Sunamganj
district. At least 10 Hindus were injured in this gruesome attack.
May 11: The
miscreants vandalized the idol of the famous Sri Sri
Ma Bidveshwari temple at Chaparhat
Emenderghat in Lalmonirhat
district.
May 13: Idols
of Hindu goddesses were vandalised by
some miscreants at a temple in Rangamati district town on Tuesday night. The
incident took place at Sri Sri Mogdeswari
temple in Rangamati district in Bangladesh. Police had confirmed that the gold
ornaments put on the idol and the donation box of the temple were also looted.
Police suspected that miscreants entered the temple sometime at night and
looted valuables after vandalising the idol.
May 13: In yet
another incident which occured on the same day,
thieves broke the back wall and entered to the Perth Sarathi
temple of the Kshatriya Samiti in Suihari and stole jewellery and other valuable things of the temple and
belongings of the Hindu students in the dormitory at Sadar
thana in Dinajpur district.
May 19: As
another atrocity on minorities, a Hindu priest, Shri Sameer Haldar
(55) and his wife were physically assaulted by the local chairman, Shahjahan
Ali Khan and his goon at Ambria village of Morelganj in Bagerhat district. They wanted to occupy the
house and land of this Hindu priest.
Last month,
the World Hindu Federation, Bangladesh chapter had alleged that
the persecution of minorities in Bangladesh, mainly Hindus, has increased
during the lockdown. Bangladesh announced a nationwide lockdown after noting a
surge in Coronavirus cases in the country on 26 March.
Delhi
Minorities Commission Chairman stands by his comments threatening Hindus,
claims he is fighting to save the country and Constitution
Opindia
May 3, 2020
Zafarul Islam said that he had apologised
for the tweet only because the timing of the tweet was incorrect, given that
there is a pandemic underway but he does not see anything wrong with the
comments themselves.
Delhi
Minorities Commission Chairman Zafarul Islam has
declared that he still stands by his incendiary comments after he was
booked on charges of sedition by
Delhi Police. He said that it was ‘erroneously’ reported by sections of the
media that he had deleted his tweet containing the crude remarks and deleted
it. Zafarul Islam said that he had apologised for the tweet only because the timing of the tweet
was incorrect, given that there is a pandemic underway but he does not see
anything wrong with the comments themselves. He said that he stands by his
words and convictions.
Zafarul Islam added, “The tweet is very much there
on my twitter handle and facebook page. Moreover, I
have said in my 1 May 2020 statement that I stand by my views and convictions.
I will continue, now and in future, the fight against hate politics in the
country. FIRs, arrests and imprisonments do not change this path which I chosen
consciously to save my country, my people, the Indian secular polity and the
Constitution.”
On Tuesday,
Islam shared a provocative post on Facebook to thank Kuwait for “standing with
the Indian Muslims” and attacked Hindus by referring to them as “Hindutva
bigots”, who according to him miscalculated the reaction of the Arab world
about the “persecution of Muslims in India”. Shockingly, the Delhi Minority
Commission chairman hailed notorious radical Islamist
and terror sympathiser Zakir Naik in
his post as he claimed people like Naik are respectful household names in the
Arab region and Muslim world. “Mind you, bigots, Indian Muslims have opted
until now not to complain to the Arab and Muslim world about your hate
campaigns and lynchings and riots. The day they are
pushed to do that, bigots will face avalanche,” he added.
On May 1,
Islam tendered an apology, saying that his tweet was “ill-timed” and
“insensitive” in light of the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak. While apologising, he claimed that the matter was blown “out of
proportion. Zafarul Islam further accused the media
of fabricating and distorting hi statements. He added that the
would continue to defend India on crucial issues as doing otherwise would be
against the Constitution and his religious beliefs.
In a video
message, the National Commission of Minorities Chairman Ghayorul
Hasan Rizvi stated, “National minorities Commission condemns the statements
made by Zafarul Islam which are divisive in nature. Zafarul Islam should not have forgotten that people
of all religions
have been living in harmony for centuries and have faced all
calamities together.”
Rizvi also
stated that the Delhi Minorities Commission Chairman should remember that
despite vehement opposition from an Islamic nation like Pakistan, many Arab
nations have honoured our PM Modi with the highest
civilian awards of their countries. Rizvi added that strict action should be
taken against Zafarul Islam for his hateful comments.
Kamlesh Tiwari murder: UP Police says case solved,
remarks on Prophet Muhammad behind killing
Kamlesh Tiwari was brutally
murdered at his home at Khursheda Bagh in Lucknow on
Friday afternoon.
October 19, 2019
Uttar Pradesh Police has claimed to solve the
sensational Kamlesh Tiwari murder case. Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police(DGP), OP Singh addressed a press conference in
Lucknow in connection with Kamlesh Tiwari murder case.
OP Singh said, "A joint team of UP and Gujarat Police has detained 3
persons and interrogating them. Their names are Maulana Mohsin Sheikh, Faizan, & Khurshid Ahmed Pathan. Two other accused were
also detained but released later, they are being monitored."
UP DGP confirmed the murder of the Hindu leader Kamlesh Tiwari to be a radical
killing and held the Hindu Samaj Party leader's objectionable
2015 comments on Prophet Muhammad as the reason behind the killing.
While Chanting
‘Allah O Akbar’ And ‘Naara E Takbeer’,
Mob Vandalises Temple In Delhi’s Chandni Chowk
by Swarajya Staff - Jul
01 2019
A temple was vandalised in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk after clashes broke out
between two communities over a parking dispute on Sunday night (30
June), Press Trust of India has reported.
The incident
is said to have happened after a man began assaulting a few intoxicated men
over a parking dispute. The fight soon escalated and a mob vandalised
a temple in the area at about 10 pm which triggered communal tensions.
A purported
video of the incident released by Delhi MLA Kapil Mishra shows a mob vandalising a temple while shouting slogans like Allah
O Akbar and Naara E Takbeer.
As a result of
this incident, a heavy police force has been deployed in the area in an attempt
to quell tensions.
As per DCP
(central) Mandeep Singh Randhawa, a case has been registered in the
matter and CCTV footage has been obtained to take action against the accused.
Five held in Coimbatore for plotting to murder Hindu Makkal Katchi leader Arjun
Sampath
After top officials in the
city police were alerted in early July, people who were considered a threat to
HMK leader Arjun Sampath were closely watched.
03rd September 2018
By Prabhakar T
Express News Service
COIMBATORE: The city police, based on a tip-off from Central intelligence
agencies, arrested five Muslim youth for allegedly hatching a plot to murder
Hindu Makkal Katchi (HMK)
leader Arjun Sampath and his son Omkar Balaji, on Saturday night. Four of them were
already on the radar of the Central intelligence agencies when they showed up
at Coimbatore Railway Junction; the fifth person had gone to the station to
receive the other four.
A social media page was the only link between the four Chennai youth -- Jafar Safiq Ali (29) of Vysarpadi, Ismail (25) of Tindivanam,
Samsudeen (20) of Pallavaram
and Shalavuddin (25) of Pallavaram,
and one Coimbatore boy -- Ashik (25) of Variety Hall Road. And the alleged plan
to murder HMK leader Arjun Sampath and son Omkar Balaji.
Sources privy to the investigation told Express that the five had discussed
ways to kill Arjun and had spread hatred against on social media, they had
plans ready for Omkar as he was an easier target, given that the former had
police protection. One of the five members was said to be a sympathiser
of the Islamic State of Jammu and Kashmir and a member of the banned terrorist organisation; two others from Chennai were members of
political parties. Ashik was facing several cases, including kidnapping school
girls, in the city. He had been under the radar of the city intelligence for
his notorious activities but his radical activities had not come to light till
now, sources added.
“Though these youth did not have any previous enmity with the leader, they were
inspired by the IS module and other radical religious outfits and hatched a
plot,” a senior official said.
Meanwhile, there were claims that the four youth had come to Coimbatore to
attend a wedding. However, police confirmed that they were not even invited to
a wedding but had come to meet in person and find ways to kill the leader
before the upcoming Vinayagar Chathurthi.
After Coimbatore City Police arrested five youth -- one from the city and four
from Chennai -- for reportedly plotting to kill Hindu Makkal
Katchi (HMK) leader Arjun Sampath and son Omkar
Balaji, sources in the city intelligence confirmed that Omkar had indeed
received death threats two months ago.
After top officials in the city police were alerted in early July, people who were
considered a threat to him were closely watched.
According to an intelligence personnel, in the aftermath of the murder of Hindu
Munnani functionary C Sasikumar, Balaji had
reportedly taken to social media and called for people to act against a particular
community. It was from then that he had received threats on social media.
Leading Hindu priest decapitated in Bangladesh
February 21, 2016
Dhaka (AFP) - A top Hindu priest was decapitated by
attackers in northern Bangladesh Sunday and two worshippers wounded, police
said, in the latest assault targeting minorities in the Muslim-majority nation.
Two assailants armed with
pistols and cleavers attacked Jogeswar Roy, 45, the
head priest of Sri Sri Sant Gourio
Math, at his home in the temple on Sunday morning, officials said.
"The priest was preparing for morning prayers when
they pounced on him and slit his head from the body at the verandah of his home
inside the temple," said Shafiqul Islam, a government administrator in the
sub-district Debiganj where the temple is located.
"We recovered a blood-stained cleaver from the
spot," he said.
Two devotees were wounded in the attack including one who
was shot as he tried to save the priest, he added.
The motive for the murder was not clear but police said
Islamist militants were among those suspected as being behind the killing.
District police chief Gias
Uddin Ahmed said police had launched a hunt for the attackers and security checkposts had been set up across the district.
"The Jamayetul Mujahideen
Bangladesh (JMB) is also in our list of suspects," Ahmed told AFP.
The banned group is believed to have been behind an
attack on an Italian Catholic priest in the neighbouring
district of Dinajpur late last year.
Bangladesh has seen an upsurge in attacks on minorities
including Shiites, Sufis, Christians and Ahmadis by Islamist militant groups.
The government rejects the Islamic State's claims of responsibility
for several recent attacks, including the shootings of two foreigners.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's secular government instead
accuses the JMB, other local militant groups as well as the Islamist-allied
political opposition of trying to destabilise the
country.
Hindus, the country's largest minority, make up nearly 10
percent of Bangladesh's 160 million people.
Panic grips Pakistani Hindus after temple is desecrated in Karachi
February
3, 2016
Zee News
Karachi: Three pistol-waving bearded men stormed a 60-year-old temple in
Pakistan’s largest city and desecrated the idol of a Hindu deity, leading to
fear among the minority community here, a media report said on Tuesday.
The incident happened on January 21 when the three men
clad in salwar and kameez stormed the temple waving pistols and ordered
everyone inside the premises to step out.
The panic and scuffle that followed resulted in
desecration of one of the three beautifully-decorated idols at the temple near
the Karachi Zoological Gardens, Dawn reported.
“The people are afraid of coming here for puja now after
the attack,” said Maharaj Hira Lal.
Other than the Maharaj and his family, the caretakers of
this temple, nobody else was present when the scuffle broke.
“We don’t know who those men were. We have never seen them before,” the Maharaj
said. “We are very saddened by the incident. It has really terrorised
the neighbourhood,” he said.
The temple has three idols of deities Shitala
Mata, Santoshi Mata and Bhavani Mata.
Maharaj said the temple was built as a place for worship
by his grandfather soon after he moved to Pakistan from India some 60 years
ago.
“He was childless but adopted a 14-year-old boy, Mohan,
who he brought up as his son. The young boy was soon married to a suitable
Hindu girl, Champa Bai, who lived nearby in Soldier
Bazaar. And I am Mohan and Champa’s son,” he said.
“The private temple soon became known when several women
considered unable to give birth to children came to perform puja here following
which they were able to conceive.
“Then some eight years ago, during regular puja here,
devotees witnessed another miracle when Kali Mata’s footprints made from red
holy powder abir suddenly appeared beside the
mantel,” the Maharaj said.
Allah has bestowed Pakistanis the honour to
destroy India, kill Hindus
January 3,
2016
Zee Media
Bureau
New Delhi: Columnist and author Tarek Fateh on Sunday
shared a video of a prominent Islamic cleric and former banker Irfan-ul-Haq provoking Pakistanis to destroy idol worship in India
and kill Hindus.
In a lecture which the author said was held in 2011, the cleric
said that if there is a place on earth where people worship stone idols, it is
the Indian Subcontinent.
“Pakistanis should consider themselves fortunate that Allah has bestowed the honour to wage war against India to them,” the cleric said.
The cleric further went on to claim that the Prophet had said that there will
be a war in India that will be 'Ghazwa-e-Hind'.
“The genesis of Pakistan was prophesied to defeat India and Hinduism at the
hands of Pakistan,” he further added.
5,000 Hindus
flee Pak every year due to persecution
Omer Farooq
Khan, TNN
May 14, 2014
ISLAMABAD:
Around 5,000 Hindus migrate from Pakistan to India and other countries every
year due to religious persecution, ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz)
lawmaker Ramesh Kumar Wankwani has told the Pakistani
National Assembly.
"During last two months, six incidents of religious desecration happened
only in Sindh province. In all incidents, religious books of Hindu minority and
their places of worship were burnt," said Wankwani,
who also heads the Pakistan Hindu Council.
He said the government has so far neither made arrests nor taken action against
any extremist group involved in attacks. "No one from the minority
community feels safe in Pakistan," he said on Monday while commenting on
law and order situation in the country.
He blamed the government for failing to control frequent attacks against Hindus
and maintained it was the community's constitutional right to practice its
religion freely in Pakistan.
"But the rights of Hindus have never remained a priority here. The
problems of Hindus are multiplying in Pakistan instead of decreasing. Are we
not part of this country?" he questioned.
He said it was the teaching of all the religions to respect other faiths but
the minorities had failed to get equal rights in Pakistan.
The lawmaker informed the house that scores of Hindu women have been abducted
in last few years in Sindh province and later married to their kidnappers after
forcible conversion. He urged the government to take steps to counter it.
Wankwani asked why issues of minorities never came up
for discussion in the house. "When Jinnah's residence was attacked and
destroyed in Ziarat town of Baluchistan, the National Assembly had debated on
the issue for four consecutive days,'' he said.
"I request the house to spare some time for taking up the problems faced
by minorities.'' He said Hindus are also equal citizens of Pakistan and their
holy books should also be considered equally respectful.
Wankwani suggested the government to set up a
parliamentary committee to discuss issues related to minorities in this regard.
There was a pin-drop silence in the house as all legislators attentively
listened to his emotional speech.
Later, minister of state for parliamentary affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmed said the
government will ensure the protection of minorities at all cost as it is
mentioned in the Constitution.
Hindu burial
in 'Muslim graveyard' sparks protests in Badin
Dawn.com
January 5, 2013
Late on
Wednesday night, a few people of the town dug the grave and took out the body
of the resident of village Yar Mohammad Lund, some four kilometres
off the Tando Bago town.
The body was buried by his relatives on Monday.
But the body was
reburied in the same place by the local police on the wee hours of Thursday,
following which the clerics belonging to various mosques of the town made
announcements that a Hindu was buried again in their graveyard.
The burial
infuriated the Muslim community of the town and its adjoining areas, who
gathered in the town and staged a sit-in on the Bago
Canal bridge.
Speaking to
media persons the protesters threatened to dig out the body from the grave
again.
The protesters
further claimed that a decision had been reached nearly four years ago
according to which Hindus would not bury their deceased in the same part of the
graveyard.
It is
pertinent to mention that this graveyard had been shared since many years by
both the Hindus and Muslims of the area.
There was only
a small wall erected by a former taluka Nazim of Tando
Bago to separate the parts of the graveyard.
Strict
security measures were taken by Badin's district administration to control the
law and order situation in the town.
Heavy
contingents of the police have been deployed in and around the graveyard under
the supervision of DSP Tando Bago.
The relatives
of the Hindu man, who was buried in the graveyard, spoke to Dawn.com and
claimed that the deceased was buried near the grave of his father.
The people of
various rights groups voiced their concern over the issue and demanded that the
government functionaries should take security measures for the minority
communities.
On Oct 6, in a
similar incident the body of another Hindu man was dug out of the grave and
thrown away, in a local graveyard of Haji Fakir in Pangrio
town of Badin district.
Muslim anger explodes against Bangladesh's
Hindu community
by Sumon Francis
Gomes
03/06/2013 14:24
BANGLADESH
Violence continues after the death sentence is imposed on the leader of an
Islamic party convicted of war crimes. Homes and temples have been destroyed in
various parts of the country.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) - Scores of homes have been set on fire, women and girls have
been assaulted, temples have been desecrated and statues of the goddess Kali
have been destroyed.
For days, Hindu communities in some areas of Bangladesh have been targeted by
supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamic party,
after its leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee
was sentenced to death for war crimes.
Acts of violence against the Hindu minority got worse yesterday during a hartal
or strike called by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Jamaat's main ally,
to protest against the verdict.
In Khulna (a town in the country's southwest), various activists from the
Jamaat-Shibir (Jamaat-e-Islami's
youth wing) and the BNP led protesters towards Dhopapara,
a poor area largely inhabited by Hindus. Rapidly, the Muslim extremists set
fire to eight homes and looted ten stores before they were dispersed by police.
"Jamaat members entered my house and beat my mother, my wife and my three
daughters," said Amio Das, one of the victims of the attack. "They
took our stuff and then set fire to the rest."
In the village of Aditmari (in the northern district
of Lalmonirhat), some fundamentalists stormed and
looted the Hindu temple of Sree Sree
Shoshan Kali Mandir, dedicated to Kali, destroying
statues of the goddess.
The same occurred to a temple in the village of Lakhirpar
and another in Satkania (Chittagong).
Pakistan's minority Hindus feel under attack
November 8,
2012
(AP) They came after dusk and chanted into
the night sky "Kill the Hindus, kill the children of the Hindus," as
they smashed religious icons, ripped golden bangles off women's arms and
flashed pistols. It wasn't the first time that the Hindu temple on the
outskirts of Pakistan's largest city was attacked, and residents here fear it
will not be the last.
"People don't consider us as equal citizens. They beat us whenever they
want," said Mol Chand, one of the teenage boys gathered at the temple.
"We have no place to worship now."
It was the second time the Sri Krishna Ram temple has been attacked, and this
time the mob didn't even bother to disguise their faces. The small temple,
surrounded by a stone wall, is a tiny religious outpost in a dusty,
hardscrabble neighborhood so far on the outskirts of the city that a sign on
the main road wishes people leaving Karachi a good journey.
Local Muslim residents blamed people from a nearby ethnic Pashtun village for
the attack, which took place in late September on the Day of Love for the
Prophet, a national holiday declared by the government in response to an
anti-Islam film made in the U.S. No one was seriously injured in the attack.
It was the latest in a rising tide of violence and discrimination against
Hindus in this 95 percent Muslim country, where Islamic extremism is growing.
Pakistan's Hindu community says it faces forced conversions of Hindu girls to
Islam, a lack of legal recognition for their marriages, discrimination in
services and physical abuse when they venture into the streets.
The story of the Hindu population in Pakistan is one of long decline. During
partition in 1947, the violent separation of Pakistan and India into separate
countries, hundreds of thousands of Hindus opted to migrate to India where
Hinduism is the dominant religion. Those that remained and their descendants
now make up a tiny fraction of Pakistan's estimated 190 million citizens, and
are mostly concentrated in Sindh province in the southern part of the country.
Signs of their former stature abound in Karachi, the capital of Sindh. At the
150-year-old Swami Narayan Temple along one of the city's main roads, thousands
of Hindus gather during the year to celebrate major religious holidays. Hindus
at the 200-year-old Laxmi Narain Temple scatter the
ashes of their cremated loved ones in the waters of an inlet from the Arabian
Ocean.
But there are also signs of how far the community has fallen. Residents in a
city hungry for land have begun to build over Hindu cemeteries, the community's
leaders say. Hindus helped build Karachi's port decades ago, but none work
there now.
Estimates of the size of the Hindu population in Pakistan are all over the map
from 2.5 million or 10 million in Sindh province alone to 7 million across the
country a reflection of the fact that the country hasn't had a census since
1998.
It isn't just Hindus who are facing problems. Other minorities like Christians,
the mystical Muslim branch of Sufis and the Ahmadi sect have found themselves
under attack in Pakistan, where the rise of Muslim fundamentalists has
sometimes unleashed a violent opposition against those who don't follow their
strict religious tenets.
The discrimination has prompted some Hindus to leave for India, activists warn,
though the extent is not known. Around 3,000 Hindus left this year, part of a
migration that began four years ago, sparked by discrimination and a general
rise in crime in Sindh, said DM Maharaj, who heads an organization to help
Hindus called Pakistan Hindu Sabha.
He said he recently talked to a group of Hindus preparing to move to India from
rural Sindh, complaining that they can't eat in Muslim restaurants or that
Muslim officials turned them down for farming loans. Even during recent floods,
they said Muslims did not want them staying in the same refugee camps.
Other Hindu figures such as provincial assembly member Pitamber Sewami deny there's a migration at all, in a reflection of
how sensitive the issue is. Earlier this year, there were a string of reports
in Pakistani media about Hindus leaving the country, sparking a flurry of
promises by Pakistani officials to investigate.
In India, a Home office official said the Indian government noticed an upward
trend of people coming from Pakistan but called reports of Pakistanis fleeing
to India "exaggerated." He said he does not have exact figures on how
many Pakistani Hindus have stayed in India after entering the country on
tourist visas. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the
sensitivity of the topic.
There's more of a consensus of the seriousness of the problem of forced
conversion of Hindus.
Zohra Yusuf, the president of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says the
pattern goes like this: A Hindu girl goes missing and then resurfaces days or
weeks later married to a Muslim boy. During court hearings to determine whether
the conversion was voluntary, students from nearby Islamic schools called
madrassas often flood the room, trying to intimidate the judges by chanting
demands that the conversion be confirmed.
Maharaj says he's tried to intervene in roughly 100 cases of forced conversions
but has only succeeded in returning a girl safely back to her family once. If a
girl decides to renounce Islam and return to Hinduism, she could be signing a
death warrant for herself and her family even if her conversion was forced.
The Hindu community has also been hurt by a lack of unity within its ranks.
Hindu society within Pakistan and elsewhere has historically been divided by
caste, a system of social stratification in which the lower castes are often
seen as inferior.
Members of the lower castes in Pakistan say
it wasn't until two girls from a high-caste family were forcibly converted this
year that high-caste Hindus took the issue seriously, although it's been happening
for years.
"We always fight our war ourselves," said Bholoo
Devjee, a Hindu activist from Karachi, speaking about
the lower castes.
In recent months the government has begun to take the concerns of the Hindu
community more seriously. In Sindh province, legislators proposed a law to
prevent forced conversions in part by implementing a waiting period before a
marriage between a Hindu and a Muslim can go forward, and there's discussion
about proposing such a law on the national level as well.
In the case of the Sri Krishna Ram temple, law enforcement authorities opened a
blasphemy case against the people who rampaged through the building. But
residents here are skeptical that these developments signify any long-term
improvement in their plight. Weeks after the incident no arrests have been
made, and the Hindus complain that no high-ranking Hindu officials have come to
visit them or help them get compensation.
Sunda Maharaj, the spiritual leader at the temple,
which was first attacked in January 2011, said he and the other residents do
not want to move to India. "We are Pakistani," he said.
But he would like more help from the government, specifically a checkpoint to
stop people from getting close to the temple and money for the Hindus to buy
weapons.
"Next time anyone comes we can kill them or die defending our
temple," he said.
Six Attackers
Slain at Shrine in India
Tuesday July 5, 2005 3:01 PM
By KULSUM
TALHA
Associated
Press Writer
LUCKNOW, India
(AP) - In a likely suicide attack, unidentified militants blew up a security
wall on Tuesday and stormed a northern Indian Hindu shrine at the heart of a
bitter sectarian dispute, setting off a fierce gunbattle
with security personnel that left five other attackers dead, officials said.
Police found the
remains of a man they believe either deliberately or unwittingly triggered the
blast that launched the assault, said Jyoti Sinha, chief of the Central Reserve
Police Force at the Ram Janmbhoomi shrine in the city
of Ayodhya. Sinha's paramilitary force guards much of
the site, which is claimed by both Hindus and Muslims.
In 1992, Hindu
nationalists demolished a 16th century Muslim mosque on the sprawling 80-acre
(32-hectare) complex, sparking religious riots that killed more than 2,000
people.
Hindu leaders
claim the mosque was built by Mogul rulers on the site of a sacred Hindu
temple. They believe the site is the birthplace of Ram, the highest god in the
Hindu pantheon, but Muslims say there is no proof of that claim. The dispute is
still working its way through India's courts.
“There were
six militants. Five of them were killed by the security forces. Another body,
torn into pieces, was found near the scene of the blast. He was perhaps used as
a human bomb,” Sinha said. The assault lasted nearly two hours and three
security forces suffered injuries, he added.
The attackers
used two vehicles in the assault - a jeep loaded with bombs that blew up part
of a wall on the periphery of the high-security complex, and a taxi in which
they traveled to the complex posing as tourists, said Alok Sinha, the home
secretary of Uttar Pradesh state, where Ayodhya is
located. The taxi driver was arrested and was being questioned, he said.
Security officials
in the capital, New Delhi, said they had advance intelligence indicating that
militant groups were planning to attack religious sites.
“We had
already taken some preventive steps. That is why our security forces were able
to successfully repulse the attack,” said national Home Secretary V.K. Duggal.
Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh strongly condemned the attack and said the government would deal
firmly with any terrorists.
“All state
governments have been alerted to take adequate precautions to protect
monuments, security installations, religious places. Particular attention has
been drawn toward maintaining communal harmony, peace and public order,”
Singh's media adviser, Sanjay Baru, told reporters.
Ayodhya is guarded at all times by thousands of
police and paramilitary soldiers, and the site has multiple barricades where
visitors are frisked before being allowed in. Security is so tight that even
pens, pencils, lighters and matchboxes are prohibited.
No militant
group claimed responsibility for the attack, and Duggal declined to single out
a particular group.
But Hindu
nationalists quickly blamed Pakistan-backed militants from the
Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, and said the incident proved India's
recent peace overtures with Islamabad were a failure. India and Pakistan,
traditional rivals, are pursuing peace after years of acrimony.
It was “an
attack by jihad terrorists,” said a spokesman for the Hindu nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. “There should be protests
against this across the country, peacefully,” spokesman Ram Madhav said.
The group is
the ideological fountainhead of all Hindu organizations in India, including the
main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, which called
for a nationwide strike on Wednesday to protest the assault.
“To attack the
Ram Janmbhoomi, the holiest shrine of the Hindus, is
a very serious thing and there should be an equal reaction,” said party
president Lal Krishna Advani.
Pakistan
condemned Tuesday's attack in Ayodhya. The largest militant
group in Kashmir, Hezb-ul Mujahedeen, also condemned
the assault.
A leading
Islamic scholar in India called for peace, describing such attacks as futile.
“No movement
can succeed with violence. They should give up the guns, bombs and violence and
solve this through peaceful dialogue,” said Maulana Wahiuddin.
“Those who are doing it are helping neither their country, nor their religion.”
The violence
Tuesday was the first major attack on a Hindu temple site since a 2002 assault
on the Akshardham temple in western Gujarat state which left 32 people dead,
including two attackers. That attack was blamed on the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e
Tayyaba group - one of more than a dozen guerrilla groups fighting for
Kashmir's independence or its merger with mostly Muslim Pakistan.
HAF releases
Hindu Human Rights report India Post News Service
NEW YORK: The
Hindu American Foundation (HAF) released recently its first annual report on the
status of Hindu human rights in Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Indian state of
Jammu and Kashmir. Entitled “Hindus in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Kashmir: A
survey of Human Rights 2004”, the report was prepared by HAF and compiles media
coverage and first-hand accounts of human rights violations perpetrated against
Hindus because of their religious identity. The 71-page report was delivered
prior to its release to the co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus on India and
Indian-Americans, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Rep. Gary Ackerman
(D-NY), who endorsed the report.
“The human rights violations that are occurring against Hindus must no longer
be ignored without reprobation,” said Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen, after
reviewing the HAF report. “Hindus have a history of being peaceful, pluralistic
and understanding of other faiths and peoples, yet minority Hindus have endured
decades of pain and suffering without the attention of the world.”
Congressman Ackerman stressed the fundamental nature of religious freedom and
supported the concept of the annual report produced by HAF. “The Hindu American
Foundation has done some important work in this regard by compiling their 2004
Survey of Human Rights by helping to defend the rights of Hindus around the
world to practice their religion without intimidation and by shining a light on
those who would take away their religious freedoms,” said Ackerman in a
statement distributed on July 12.
The Hindu human rights report—the first in what is to be an annual publication—was
prepared, according to the HAF Board of Directors, to document a humanitarian
tragedy largely omitted in reports by the United States State Department and
larger human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch. While these groups often mention the attacks on Hindus according
to HAF, the group maintains that the massive scope of this human rights
disaster requires the extensive coverage that this report provides.
“With over 600 documented attacks of murder, rape and physical intimidation of
Hindus in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India’s state of Jammu and Kashmir last year
alone, the ongoing atrocities against Hindus can no longer be ignored,” said
Ramesh Rao, member of the HAF Executive Council who contributed to the report.
“We are gratified that leaders in the U.S. Congress understand the magnitude of
this tragedy and are determined to raise their voices in outrage.”
The report specifically denounces Bangladesh for a long-history of anti-Hindu
atrocities that have recently spiked following the ascent of the Bangladeshi
National Party-Jamat-e-Islami
coalition. The decline of Hindus in Bangladesh from 30% of the population in
1947, to less than 10% today is analyzed in the report. The report alleges that
the estimated loss of 20 million Bangladeshi Hindus is a consequence of an
ongoing genocide and forced exodus.
“Persecution, discrimination and outright violence is the horrid reality for
Hindus in Bangladesh today,” said Dr. Aseem Shukla,
member of the HAF Board of Directors. “The international community must demand
that the Bangladesh government immediately investigate the ongoing religious
cleansing within its borders and empower minority and human rights commissions
there.”
The HAF report also discusses the consequence of Pakistan and Al-Qaeda
sponsored Islamist violence in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir that has
left tens of thousands of Hindus and Muslims dead, and 350,000 Hindu victims of
religious cleansing. Similarly, the Pakistan government is condemned for
systematic state-sponsored religious discrimination against Hindus through
elaborate “anti-blasphemy” laws, and for failing to investigate numerous
reports of millions of Hindus being held as “bonded laborers” in slavery-like
conditions.
“While HAF supports all efforts to bring lasting peace between India and
Pakistan,” cautioned Sheetal D. Shah, member of the HAF Executive Council and a
contributor to the HAF report, “Pakistan must continue to be held responsible
for a recent upsurge in violence in the Kashmir valley, and even possibly on
one of Hinduism’s most sacred shrines this month alone.”
HAF leaders were gratified by Congressional support for the report and
discussed plans to follow-up the report in personal interactions with many
other legislators planned later this year. A congressional resolution
emphasizing aspects of the report is being actively discussed. Rep. Ros Lehtinen and Rep. Ackerman pledged to continue working with
HAF on these human rights issues.
“I applaud the Hindu American Foundation for bringing awareness to this issue,”
said Ros-Lehtinen. “I look forward to working with it to help address this scar
on the international human rights community."
Ackerman discussed the obligation of Congress to speak out against international
human rights abuses. “By working alongside organizations such as the Hindu
American Foundation, we can help to ensure that violations to religious freedom
are documented, and challenged across the world,” he added.
The survey findings
BANGLADESH
• Over 400
documented attacks have taken place on Bangladeshi Hindus between January and
November 2004.
• These attacks include the day to day acts of murder, rape, kidnapping, temple
destruction, and physical intimidation.
• Hindus are labeled as “enemies” of Bangladesh. The Enemy Property Order II of
1965, under which property belonging to Hindus was identified as enemy
property, was renamed as Vested Property Act in 1972, and under which, the
Government of
• Bangladesh vested itself with alleged enemy properties. Still in force, this
Order of the President and the Enemy \ Vested Property Act has not been
subjected to any judicial review.
• Hindus, who comprised nearly 30% of Bangladesh’s population in 1947, now
constitute less than 10% of the population.
• By 1991, 20
million Hindus were unaccounted or “missing” according to expected population
trends.
PAKISTAN
• Hindus, who
constituted between 15% and 24% of Pakistan’s population in 1947, now comprise
less than 1.6% of the population.
• Nearly 2
million people, many of them Hindus, are held as slaves in “bonded labor” in
southern Pakistan.
• Kidnapping
of vulnerable Hindus is a well-established multi-million
dollar industry.
• Pakistan officially discriminates against non-Muslims through a variety of
laws and strictures. Discriminatory laws include the “anti-blasphemy law” under
which anyone who is accused of criticizing the Prophet Muhammad is imprisoned
without trial for long periods of time, and mandatory religious identification
in passports. Specific discriminatory laws are the Hudood Ordinance of 1979
(offence of Zina, offence of Qazaf, execution of
punishment of whipping ordinance), the Qanoon-i-Shahadat
Order of 1984 and Qisas & Diyat
Ordinance (Section 306 C) of 1991.
JAMMU & KASHMIR
• Over 300,000 Kashmiri Hindus have been forced to leave due to ethnic
cleansing abetted by Kashmiri Muslims.
• These
300,000 Hindus are refugees in their own country, sheltered in temporary camps
near Delhi and elsewhere.
• More than
3,000 Hindu civilians have been killed, and thousands more Hindu police and
army personnel have succumbed to terrorist violence.
There are virtually no Hindus left in the Kashmir Valley; they have all been
driven out.
Conclusion
Of these
regions, Bangladesh represents an ongoing crisis for Hindus and is of utmost
immediate concern.
Human rights
violations against Hindus are repeatedly ignored by human rights organizations
such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and government commissions
like the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom that
routinely fail to specifically highlight the plight of Hindus in regions where
they comprise a minority.
Minority and
human rights commissions in these regions must be created and/or empowered to
pressure the governments of these countries to provide security and uphold the
rights of minority Hindus.
The international
community must compel the governments of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India to
respect the human rights of Hindus as an urgent priority.
Procession
runs into violence in Vadodara
Express News
Service
Vadodara,
September 17: ALL day long, calm prevailed in Vadodara. It shattered on
Saturday night when violence erupted in Muslim-dominated Chaukhandi
area after a Ganesh procession was stoned at.
Police said
the last few of the Ganapati idols from Wadi area were being taken out in a
procession when there was heavy stone-pelting, which resulted in a clash.
Five people
were seriously injured, two of them with bullet injuries. However, it was not
known if those who were hit by bullets were injured in police firing or when
some procession members reportedly opened fire.
Locals said
tension prevailed in the area after president of the Chaukhandi
Yuvak Mandal received an anoynymous
letter reportedly abusing him for the manner in which Ganapati had been
displayed slaying Dawood Ibrahim and Osama bin Laden.
Later in the
evening, when Ganapati idols were being taken in a procession to Sursagar lake for immersion, there was slogan shouting near
Moghul Restaurant which led to stone-pelting. As the mob grew in number, some
of the members resorted to firing. Security forces, including the Rapid Action
Force, rushed to the area and cordoned it off.
Police
confirmed that five rounds of tear-gas shells were fired at the rioting mob.
Five rounds of police firing occured during the
incident. ‘
Temple,
Station Attacked in India
Authorities Urge Calm After Deadly Back-to-Back Blasts
By John
Lancaster
Washington
Post Foreign Service
Wednesday,
March 8, 2006; A14
NEW DELHI,
March 7 -- Bombs exploded in a crowded Hindu temple and a railway station in
the holy city of Varanasi on Tuesday evening, killing at least 15 people and
raising fears of retaliatory violence against India's minority Muslim population.
Authorities appealed for calm and police officers in major cities were placed
on high alert.
Even before
the blasts, communal tensions had been rising in India. Angry Muslim protests
against President Bush, who visited India last week, as well as against
cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, first published in a Danish newspaper, have
erupted into violence in several cities.
The first
blast Tuesday ripped through the Sankat Mochan temple shortly after 6 p.m. as Hindu devotees
gathered to make offerings to the monkey god Hanuman, Indian news agencies
reported. Among the dead was a bridegroom who had come to seek the deity's
blessings, according to the Press Trust of India news service. Tuesday evening
is the traditional time for visiting the temple.
The second
explosion came minutes later at the railway station. The blast left a foot-deep
crater, shattered windows and splattered the station with blood and body parts,
the Press Trust reported. Four more unexploded bombs were found at another site
next to the Ganges River.
In an
interview with the Reuters news agency, Navneet Sikera,
senior superintendent of police in Varanasi, put the death toll at 15, with 60
injured. The Press Trust said 20 people had died, including 14 at the train
station. [Five people died overnight of injuries, according to a police
official cited by the Associated Press.]
Indian
television footage of the bombed temple showed pools of blood and chunks of
flesh amid scattered shoes and other debris. Injured survivors were carried to
private vehicles and ambulances, and crowds of angry men waved their fists in
the air. Many of the injured were said to be in critical condition.
Situated in
the state of Uttar Pradesh about 400 miles east of New Delhi, the historic,
densely packed city of Varanasi is sometimes called the "Hindu
Jerusalem" to underscore its significance to the followers of India's
dominant faith, who make up about 81 percent of the population. The city is a
magnet for pilgrims who travel there for ritual baths in the Ganges River. And
the most religious Hindus believe there is no better place to die than
Varanasi, whose waterfront is lined with cremation grounds.
Authorities feared
the bombings of such a sensitive site could trigger communal bloodletting. In
2002, reports of a Muslim attack on a train carrying Hindu nationalists in the
state of Gujarat triggered rioting that left more than 1,000 people dead. Most
of the dead in that episode were Muslims, who make up about 13 percent of
India's billion-plus people.
Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh "has appealed for peace and calm," said his media
adviser, Sanjay Baru. "He is constantly
monitoring the situation."
Interior
minister Shivraj Patil was en
route to Varanasi Tuesday night, as was Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress
party, which heads the country's governing coalition.
Spokesmen for
the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which
leads the opposition, blamed the bombings on what they said was the
government's lax attitude toward terrorism, and called for a strike in Uttar
Pradesh on Wednesday.
One key
unanswered question Tuesday night was whether the bombings were the work of
homegrown Islamic extremists or militant groups based in Pakistan. In the past,
the Pakistani government has used such groups as a weapon in its conflict with
India over the divided Himalayan province of Kashmir.
In late 2001,
an attack on India's Parliament that India blamed on Pakistan triggered a
military standoff that raised fears of a nuclear exchange. The crisis was
defused only under heavy U.S. and British diplomatic pressure.
India and
Pakistan embarked on peace negotiations that have lowered tensions, but Indian
officials have continued to express skepticism over claims by Gen. Pervez
Musharraf, Pakistan's president, that he has ended state support for militant
groups. Indian authorities have identified the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba,
which is based in Pakistan, as a primary suspect in the bombings of two New
Delhi markets that killed 60 people Oct. 29. Musharraf has banned the group,
although it continues to operate under a different name.
Some analysts
saw a possible connection between the bombings and Hindu-Muslim clashes in the city
of Lucknow on Friday that left four people dead. The clashes grew out of Muslim
protests against Bush. Communal clashes also erupted in the coastal state of
Goa.
Suspect identified in deaths of Anaheim Hills
father, daughter
Former boyfriend of surviving daughter
arrested in Phoenix airport carrying a one-way ticket to Bangladesh.
By GWENDOLYN DRISCOLL, GARY GRADO and DENISSE
SALAZAR
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
A Van Nuys man carrying a
one-way ticket to Bangladesh has been arrested at a Phoenix airport in
connection with the deaths of two Anaheim Hills residents last week, the
beating of a third, and a house fire, Maricopa County Superior Court officials
confirmed Tuesday.
Iftekhar Murtaza,22, is
identified in court papers as the ex-boyfriend of Shayona
Dhanak, the 18-year-old daughter of one of the two
murder victims, Jayprakash Dhanak,
56. The other victim, Karishma Dhanak, 20, was Shayona Dhanak’s sister. Jayprakash’s wife, Leela Dhanak,
53, was severely beaten in the attack but survived.
The victims were stabbed,
strangled and burned, according to the documents. The Dhanaks’
Anaheim Hills home was set on fire.
Murtaza was identified by a
“victim,” according to police documents presented to the Superior Court.
Anaheim police Sgt. Rick
Martinez described Murtaza as a “person of interest” in the case.
“This is still a very wide
and complex investigation,” Martinez said. “We are not discounting anything.”
Martinez noted that “based
on the brutality of the crime, we believe there was more than one suspect
involved.”
The motive for the crime
appears to be a dispute over religion.
“Information developed
revealed the suspect was upset with Shayona’s parents
and sister for discontinuing the relationship due to different religious
backgrounds, Hindu and Muslim,” the papers said.
The Dhanaks
were reported by friends and neighbors to be devout members of the strict
Swaminarayan branch of Hinduism. Murtaza is Muslim.
Court documents do not
specify how police knew that Murtaza was in Phoenix. His description was
forwarded to Phoenix police and to the U.S. Marshal’s office at Phoenix’s Sky
Harbor International Airport. About 2 a.m. Saturday, a man fitting Murtaza’s
description was spotted.
“A person matching the
description was seen inside a terminal at the airport,” the documents said. “He
was contacted and identity was confirmed through a passport and identification
card. He was subsequently detained for questioning.”
Murtaza was connected with
the crime through telephone toll records that revealed that his telephone was
used on the day of the murders less than two miles from the crime scene and
about 50 minutes before the attack began, documents say.
After his arrest, Murtaza
gave a voluntary statement in which he said he was “not in Anaheim on the day
or evening of the homicide,” according to the court papers.
Murtaza was arraigned about
5 p.m. Saturday and charged with being a fugitive from justice. He is being
held without bond by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department because he is
considered a flight risk.
The crime to which he is
now linked occurred May 21 about 11 p.m. when police responded to reports of a
fire on the 6100 block of East Camino Correr in
Anaheim Hills. When police arrived, they found a badly beaten Leela Dhanak lying unconscious outside her house. Her husband and
daughter Karishma were missing.
Shayona Dhanak
was not living at home at the time and was unharmed.
About 4:15 a.m. Tuesday
morning, police responded to a second report of a fire in Irvine – a brush fire
next to a bike trail. Jayprakash and Karishma Dhanak’s badly burned bodies were found nearby.
Court documents list the
nature of the injuries as “head trauma, strangulation, stab wounds to abdomen,
moderate burns.”
A second court date for
Murtaza is scheduled for May 31.
Anaheim police spokesman
Martinez stressed that tips from the public were still important to solving the
crime.
“This is one of those
5,000-piece puzzles,” Martinez said. “That’s why we want the public’s help
because they might have the missing piece.”