Former US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has spoken on the persecution of Hindu & religious minorities in Bangladesh. In a video message shared on Twitter on April 2, Tulsi Gabbard also condemned the genocide of Bengali Hindus by the Pakistani Army and called upon the world to work against Islamist extremism.
In her video message which has since gone viral, she also appealed to the world leaders to come together to defeat the Islamist who are at the root of such incidents.
“As a member of Congress, I introduced a resolution that called for the protection of Hindus and religious minorities in Bangladesh. People who continue to be targeted and persecuted to this day. The height of this persecution actually began 50 years ago, when the Pakistani army systematically murdered, raped and drove from their homes, millions of Bengali Hindus because of their religion and ethnicity”, she says.
Speaking about the systematic targeting of Hindus in Bangladesh by the Pakistani military during 1971 Bangladesh Liberation war, Tulsi says – “March 25th, 1971 was the beginning of a systematic targeting of Hindus in Bangladesh by the Pakistani military. It began in Hindu neighbourhoods and villages, first at Jagannath Hall, which was a Hindu dormitory in Dhaka University, where five to ten thousand people were killed on that first night alone. This genocidal campaign continued for 10 months, resulting in two to three million people killed. Hundreds of thousands of women and girls raped and more than 10 million forced to flee their homes.”
Talking about how the persecution has reduced the number of Hindu minorities in Bangladesh, she said the number of Hindus in the country was about 33 percent in early 1900s but today it’s only about 8 percent. Going into the root cause of this problem, she explained how Islamist jihadists are systematically persecuting minorities everywhere.
Tulsi Gabbard also recalled US Senator Ted Kennedy who observed the genocidal campaign against Hindus. She also said that the “Islamist persecution of Hindus and other religious minorities in Bangladesh did not end with Bangladesh’s independence”.
Recently, during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Bangladesh, Islamist groups had attacked many temples, roads, buses etc to protest his visit. Gabbard mentioned these incidents too in her video message.
She also talks about the persecution of religious minorities in Afghanistan including Hindus, Buddishts, Zoarastrians since the Islamist takeover of the country.
In conclusion, she urges the world leaders to come together to defeat Islamists all over the world. Gabbard also urged the USA to commit to defeating the Islamist ideology.
Aayush Pal 
Balaji Subramanian 
Palak Dogra