Author: Priya Saha

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed on Wednesday held out an assurance that as long as he served the top judicial office, he would ensure that the rights of minority communities, as guaranteed under the Constitution, were protected at any cost and that the tragic incidents of desecration and vandalism of their places of worship were not repeated. Speaking at a seminar organised by the Implementation of the Minority Rights Forum (IMRF) and All Neighbours on the rights of the minorities at a local hotel, the CJP recalled how he felt pain when he learnt about the desecration…

“What is your religion?”—this peculiar question (yes, it feels peculiar when asked within seconds after being introduced to someone) followed me all through my life as my two names are Bangla words, while my surname is a common one used by people of different religions. I always wondered why knowing someone’s religion was so important. I could believe in anything or nothing with the most “religious” of names and be an ardent believer with a not-very-religious name. “Who gave you this name?” and “how religious are you?” were some other odd questions that bugged me, the worst one being: “Why…

The participants of a human chain in Khulna yesterday protested the recent attack on Hindus, their houses and places of worship in the district. Bangladesh Hindu Buddha Christian Oikya Parishad, Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad, Bangladesh Jatiya Hindu Mohajote, Sammilito Sangskritik Jote and other organisations formed the human chain at the city’s Picture Palace intersection. For all latest news, follow The Daily Star’s Google News channel. They also brought out a procession there, demanding arrest of all who are the mastermind and committed the heinous acts. The demonstrators also sought removal of the police camp in Ghatvog union as the law…

St Francis Church on Highlands, Ruscote Estate, BanburyThe event is being held to raise awareness about what is happening to non-Hindu people in India. The country has a population of 1.4bn and among them are around 204 Muslims, over 67m Christians and around 20m Sikhs.One of the organisers of the Curry Night is Canon Richard Cook. “The present Government in India – the world’s largest democracy – has encouraged the view that ‘to be an Indian you must be a HIndu’,” he said.”Because of this, many non-Hindu communities are being persecuted and terrorised. Some Hindu extremists want most non-Hindus ‘removed’…

A mob gathered outside temple in Bhong city in Rahim Yar Khan distric.Islamabad [Pakistan], August 11 (ANI): Anti-minority and anti-Hindu vernacular has become acceptable among the Pakistani political elite and now it has trickled down to the masses.The recent vandalisation of a temple in Bhong town in Rahim Yar Khan is yet another blatant attack on minorities and their place of worship in Pakistan.The videos of attack and vandalism have gone viral and picked up by both local and international media, reported The Nation.The incident took place after a nine-year-old Hindu boy who allegedly urinated in a local seminary, was…

ANI | Updated: Aug 11, 2021 03:51 IST Karachi [Pakistan], August 11 (ANI): The Joint Action Committee (JAC) for Shia Missing Persons on Monday raised their concerns over the issue of missing persons from its community and said that their children are growing up like orphans.Speaking at a press conference here at the Karachi Press Club, Maulana Haider Abbas of the JAC for Shia Missing Persons said: “When you take away a family member, it is not just his family that suffers. The society also suffers and lives under fear and insecurity. Imagine not knowing what has become of your…

Eminent citizens today issued a statement demanding arrest and trial of the culprits responsible for vandalising and ransacking several houses, shops and temples of the Hindu community in Khulna’s Rupsha upazila. “This is not an isolated incident. It’s a shameful example of repression of minorities during the pandemic,” they said in a joint statement signed by Shamsul Huda, executive director of ALRD. For all latest news, follow The Daily Star’s Google News channel. “In recent years, repression of minority communities has increased. We have seen such incidents in Cox’s Bazar’s Ramu (2012), Pabna’s Santhia (2013), Brahmanbaria’s Nasirnagar (2016), Bhola’s Manpura…

The group logs into Zoom in trickles, some greeting each other with long familiarity.After a few moments they get started, and Ned McNaughton begins to read part of a letter from the Universal House of Justice to the Baha’is of the United States, written in 2020.“Racism is a profound deviation from the standard of true morality,” he reads.He continues on, reading two paragraphs.Then, he asks the group to discuss.They speak about humility, about the issues of white Americans entering a minority community with a savior complex.One woman says the text shows the importance of listening to one another and coming…

History books say from his childhood, Bangabandhu was a secular politician Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, consistently a secular politician in his lifetime, did not impose any religious features in the constitution of independent Bangladesh. Following the assassination of Bangabandhu on August 15, 1975, Ziaur Rahman took charge of the nation after Khondaker Moshtaq Ahmad’s short-lived regime and added Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim at the beginning of the constitution through the fifth amendment, thus jettisoning  the principle of secularism.Later, when Hussein Muhammad Ershad seized power, he declared Islam as the state religion and introduced Friday as the general holiday in…

Previous story: “MANOJNA” help line number launched bv Chief Secretary, Assam India must mediate with Bangladesh to prevent anti-Hindu activities: PPFA Published on August 9, 2021 by Bhupen Goswami GUWAHATI : Expressing grave concerns over the relentless attacks on temples and Hindu villagers inside Bangladesh, a northeast India based nationalist citizen’s forum urged the Union government in New Delhi to deal with the Bangla government in Dhaka strongly. Patriotic People’s Front Assam (PPFA), in a statement issued on 9 August, reminded that every patriotic citizen of Bangladesh fought for its independence against the colonial British regime and later the brutal…

Prajna Debnath, a resident of Dhaniakhali in the Hooghly district of West Bengal, went missing from her home in 2009. Ten years later, in 2019, she was arrested in Bangladesh. The police were surprised to find that she was no longer Prajna Debnath but had taken a new name — Ayesha Jannat Mohona. This meritorious student turned out to be an active member of the women’s cell of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).Back in India, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested Aal Halif alias Abu Ibrahim — one of the most dreaded Islamic State (IS) handlers in the subcontinent — from…

Plateau State, where many Christians have been killed by extremists. Christians in Nigeria are calling for urgent action after a “nightmare” string of attacks. The president of the Evangelical Church Winning (ECWA), Rev Dr Stephen Baba Panya, compared the violence in Irigwe, Plateau State, to a “genocide”, with at least 70 people killed in the preceding fortnight and countless others injured. The attackers, believed to be members of the Fulani people group, targeted farming communities in Plateau State and southern Kaduna.  Dr Panya said a wave of attacks on the predominantly Christian Irigwe ethnic group between 23 July and 2 August…