India Flags ‘Unremitting Hostility’ Against Minorities in Bangladesh, Condemns Lynching of Hindu Youth

India today termed as a matter of great concern the “unremitting hostility” against minorities in Bangladesh at the hands of Islamist extremists, and condemned the horrific lynching of Hindu man Dipu Chandra Das and demanded that the perpetrators be brought to justice.

The Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, at a media briefing today, also took pot shots at the Mohammed Yunus-led interim government on the issue of violence against minorities.

The spokesperson said that over 2,900 incidents of violence against minorities, including cases of killings, arson, land grab have been documented by independent sources during the tenure of the interim government, which began on August 8, 2024.

“These incidents cannot be brushed aside as mere media exaggerations, or dismissed as political violence,” the spokesperson said, in the backdrop of Yunus and his advisors repeatedly dismissing reports of attacks on minorities as media exaggerations and cases of political violence.

To a question on the situation of minorities, he said: “We are all aware of the recent developments in Bangladesh. We have been closely following them,” he said.

“The unremitting hostility against minorities in Bangladesh, including Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, at the hands of extremists is a matter of great concern.

“We condemn the recent gruesome killing of a Hindu youth in Mymensingh, and expect that the perpetrators of the crime would be brought to justice,” in reference to the horrific lynching and burning of 25-year-old Dipu Chandra Das in Mymensingh over allegations of blasphemy on December 18.

He also dismissed the sharp anti-India rhetoric emanating in Bangladesh, especially from the so-called student leaders of the National Students Party (NCP), notably Hasnat Abdullah, where an attempt was being made to allege that the killers of Inqilab Moncho leader Osman Hadi had fled to India.

“We have rejected the false narrative that has been projected in Bangladesh,” he said, adding that law and order and the security situation of Bangladesh is the responsibility of the government there. “And to portray a narrative where things go in some other direction is false, and we reject that,” Jaiswal said.