SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, December 18, 2001: While the world’s eyes are focused on Afghanistan, Hindus are being brutally repressed in Bangladesh, the most democratic Muslim-dominated country in the region, according to this report in San Jose’s newspaper. Since the electoral victory of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia on October 1, thousands of Hindus have fled Bangladesh to avoid being killed or raped, said representatives of Hindu groups and the human rights group Amnesty International at a Hindu Solidarity Day attended by about 150 people at a Sunnyvale temple. “Without notice during the past two months, Hindus have been the victims of ethnic cleansing,” said Venkatesh Murthy of San Ramon, West Coast secretary for Hindu Swayam Sevak Sangh. The Bangladeshi government has denied that Hindus were attacked following the October election. But in late November, the country’s highest court ordered the government to explain its failure to take steps to protect the Hindu minority.
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