Bangladesh Unrest Fuelled by Far-Right Videos as new Interim Government Given ‘Historic Opportunity’ to set New Direction for Country

With the riots over in the UK, Tommy Robinson has moved on to inflaming tensions in Bangladesh where he’s repeated suggestions that a “genocide on Hindus” is underway as the country tries to find calm in the wake of violent unrest and the resignation of former ruler Sheikh Hasina.

A Civilian Interim Government is now control in Bangladesh tasked with setting the direction for a country which became increasingly authoritarian under Hasina’s rule.

Hasina fled to India on 5 August after a civilian-led coup sparked by her attempts to curtail peaceful protests over valuable civil service jobs.

The United Nations Office of Human Rights (OHCHR) has labelled the next few months a “historic opportunity” for democratic order and the rule of law to be restored following two months of bloodshed.

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk says key to Bangladesh’s future will be ensuring “accountability for violations and justice for the victims”.

The death toll from protests throughout July and early August, is now sitting at more than 600, up from 200, according to a UN report.  While demonstrators typically used “sticks, bricks or similar types of makeshift weapons” during the unrest, security forces responded persistently with firearms “including pellet shotguns, handguns and rifles”, the report noted.

The interim government’s initial steps have been promising, with thousands of detainees and longer-term political prisoners released, and a commitment stated to hold free and fair elections.

However, reports have also emerged of societal divisions becoming more pronounced than ever, fuelled by the fact that many law enforcement officials went into hiding after the collapse of the Hasina government. This has left civilians, largely made up of the original student protesters, to take control of law and order.

For some, it has become an opportunity to be exploited. 

Outbreaks of violence have been reported on several occasions, driven by retaliatory attacks against members of Hasina’s Awami League party, most notably on 15 August when the nation commemorates the 1975 assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Despite being considered by some to be the founder of modern Bangladesh, he was also father of the ousted prime minister and so has become associated with the oppression his daughter represents.

Hundreds of political activists descended on supporters of the Awami League who were on their way to mark the anniversary at the former home of the independence leader. Armed with bamboo sticks, iron rods and pipes, they brutally assaulted those participating in the commemoration.

Bangladesh’s leading newspaper the Daily Star reported that while police and army personnel were present they did not intervene. According to the Star “at least 25 people” were beaten with “sticks and rods” while the South Asia bureau chief of the New York Times, Mujib Mashal, called the unrest “complete mob rule”.

There were also attempts to cover up the violence, with journalists being blocked and threatened for documenting what was taking place, in moves that don’t tally with the direction the interim government suggests it is taking.

Nahid Islam, advisor to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, has stated “if there is no freedom of the press, there is no freedom of speech”.

Minority ethnic groups have also come under attack in the days following the collapse of the government, with the OHCHR saying there has been a number of attacks on properties belonging to Hindus – a significant portion of whom historically support the Awami League. Properties have been “attacked, vandalised and looted”.

In a statement to the Associated Press, Kajal Debnath, vice-president of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council said: “Hindus are shivering. They are not opening their doors without confirming who is knocking. Hindu minorities, from the Dhaka capital to the remote villages, are very scared.”

Fuelling tensions is a debate over the severity of the violence against the Hindu minority, with some claiming it is the beginning of a “Hindu genocide” and taking to social media using the hashtag #HinduGenocideInBangladesh. This has been amplified by people on the far-right including Robinson, real-name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

The BBC claims to have fact-checked a number of claims – including Robinson’s – about the violence and concluded that “far-right influencers in neighbouring India shared false videos and information” to mislead people.

However, campaign group Insight UK – an organisation of British Hindu and British Indian communities – has slammed the BBC for their report stating it “whitewashes” the ongoing situation and can “embolden the perpetrators of the Hindu genocide”.

Insight has also written a letter to the UK’s Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, warning that Hindus and other minorities are “under severe threat” and the UK cannot be “passive observers”. Many fear a repeat of 1971’s Operation Searchlight; a genocidal campaign in East Pakistan – territory which is now Bangladesh – which led to the killing of between 300,000 and three million people.

The genocide was largely ignored by the world, in particular the United States where reports later revealed President Richard Nixon and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger paid no attention to it. They had also helped arm the Pakistan Government who carried out the massacre. Today, the genocide is compared to atrocities such as those that took place in Rwanda yet it is rarely recognised.

Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus of the interim government has condemned the violence and promised to prioritise protection of Hindus and other minority communities.

However, Babu Ram Pant, Deputy Regional Director for South Asia at Amnesty International responded to the comment urging “concrete actions to ensure justice”.

In a statement, he urged the interim government to “ensure the rights to equality, non-discrimination and bodily integrity of everyone and bring an end to the revenge culture of attacking political opponents that Bangladesh has witnessed in the past”.

Pant added: “Time and again, incidents of mob violence, disinformation and the failure of the state to protect the minorities and provide access to justice to survivors have continued to destroy the lives of minority communities living in Bangladesh.”

Earlier this month, Byline Times revealed the UK had significantly increased the number of arms exported to Bangladesh while Hasina was in power, including sniper rifles and machine guns. Furthermore, a paramilitary ‘death squad’ with a record of severe human rights abuses was provided training in years prior to the July protests.