Amid back to back recent reports from Amnesty and Human rights Watch, there is zero initiative from the government to protect the rights of the minority. At least a symbolic gesture like a visit by ministers would have made a difference. How does these news promote good image of Bangladesh abroad?

Exhibit 1: Recent attack on the Ahmadiya mosque
Exhibit 2: Landless hindu familes of Dinajpur evicted

Rather than arresting small fries, what will make them ban outfits like Khatme Nabuwat that are directly inciting the violence?

An example of what the government can do to restore confidence of the minority is below.
New effort to ban religious hate against Muslims in UK
where as in Bangladesh we still have laws like the infamous vested property act that has not been annulled even 35 years after the liberation.

The sufferings of minorities in Bangladesh have multiple dimensions such as
economic, political, constitutional and socio-cultural. Their sufferings have
multiplied due to the promulgation of the various black ordinances and laws in
the last fifty years during both Pakistan and Bangladesh period.

In Last March 1996 Professor Abul Barkat and Shafiq Uzzaman showed in a
seminar that the approximate number of families victimised under the enemy
property act. is 10, 48, 390 and the total area of land lost is not less than
10 lakh acres.

A report by Daily Sangbad on 21st March 1977 shows that according to
government census 7,02,335 acres of cultivable land and 22,835 dueling houses
are enlisted as enemy property. Another investigation shows that since 1948,
75% of the land of religious minorities was been usurped, the same has been
done on indigenous and tribal peoples’ property.

In ALRD seminar four kinds of method are mentioned. They are: (1) Forceful
dispossession (2) Possession by govt. or lease (3) Possession but not
ownership (4) Always in fear of dispossession. An independent analysis shows
that 80% of the religious minorities can not take any remedial steps because
of weaker social and religious position. 15% of the rest have lost almost
every thing in trying to recover their land. The last 5% could however get
lease in exchange of money.

More here

Evicted Dayamoi can now shed tears only, sitting on the piece of land where her family had lived for about 40 years. She is among 82 landless families driven out from government lands in Baradal village under Mostafapur union in Parbatipur upazila in Dinajpur district, reportedly for a rehabilitation project for the landless. PHOTO: STAR