'Please Pray For Us And Our Country'

'My father died in the liberation struggle. Bangladesh is our Motherland. This is home,' says Monindra Kumar Nath, a Hindu who has lived his 74 years in Dhaka.

"I live in Dhaka and I am a senior joint secretary of the human rights organisation Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council.

My father died in the liberation movement of Bangladesh. His body wasn't even found. My brother was also a freedom fighter. During the liberation, I was a student in Assam.

We are Bangladeshi Hindus. We were born here. This is our motherland. Our home.'

'The situation is improving in Bangladesh after Sheikh Hasina's fall, but minorities all over the country are very tense. They have seen so much mayhem in the last few days -- property, houses have been destroyed, looted and temples attacked.

On August 5-6, there was no police force or administrative order and there were attacks on the Hindu community all over the country. Minorities were attacked in all the 64 districts of our country.

The families that supported and engaged with the Awami League government were the first to be attacked.

It was only after midnight on Tuesday after Dr Mohammad Yunus's name was announced as the head of the interim government that things started improving.'

'The minority population in Bangladesh is 9% of which 8% are Hindus.

In Dhaka, there are 2-3% Hindus.

There is discrimination against Hindus in different walks of life and our fight is to overcome that discrimination. We started this organisation to fight the discrimination faced by us.

During this present crisis, we set up a central monitoring cell and I am the secretary of that cell. We have been connecting with people in cities, towns and villages to know their problems. We have received so many telephone calls from the interior of the country when they were attacked by Muslim fundamentalists.

For two full days, there was no police to help, no law and order, unbelievable violence and complete lawlessness. In some areas Muslims stood guard in temples and gave protection.

We received around 200 reports of attacks and looting from different districts till Tuesday. Both Muslim and Hindu policemen were brutally attacked in certain thanas, but the situation is improving.

Hindus faced such attacks even after the 2001 election result.'

'There is some normalcy in the streets now. Dhaka appears calm now. Students were controlling traffic in Dhaka city yesterday because the police were not yet back on duty.

The temple that I visit was not attacked. The Awami League supported the Hindus, but now we don't know what will happen.

Many people will be reassured after the declaration of Dr Mohammed Yunus's name as head of the interim government.

If he is secular, we will accept him, otherwise we will continue the fight from our side.

My family is safe, but we don't know what will happen in the future.

Please pray for us and our country.'

Archana Masih/Rediff.com spoke to Monindra Kumar Nath on August 7, 2024.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com