Christian woman hospitalized after attack; Christians demand rights in Bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh (OSV News) -- Christians and Indigenous minorities protested publicly against the beating of a minority woman and the burning of her house in Gobindganj, in the northern Gaibandha district of Muslim-majority Bangladesh.

On Jan. 3, a mob led by a local political leader tried to grab the land of 50-year-old Philomina Hasdak, but the woman and her family members tried to stop them. Hasdak was beaten during the incident.

"Local political leaders with others are trying to grab our land and they have beaten us. My mother is now under treatment," British Soren, a son of Hasdak, told OSV News.

Soren asked for government justice and punishment for the guilty and also asked for compensation.

On Jan. 5, hundreds of minorities, including Christians, demonstrated on the street in the Gaibandha district under army protection and sought justice from the government over the incident.

Philimon Beskey, a Catholic leader from the Santal Indigenous community, led the protest.

"We are the minority in terms of Indigenous and Christian religion. Some majority-Muslim people are trying to grab our land using their political power and torch us, but on the other hand many Muslim people stand on our side to help us," Baskey told OSV News.

He also asked for an end to land grabbing: "we want justice and live in peace with all religions in the country," Baskey added.

"They (Muslims) grabbed Santal's land and built houses in this village," he lamented.

In a press statement Jan. 5, the Bangladesh Christian Association also expressed concern and sought justice over the incident. The organization called on the government to ensure the security of the minority and their properties.

"We always protest any kinds of persecution, land grabbing, and all kinds of injustice. ... the government should ensure justice and security for all minorities" Nirmol Rozario, president of BCA, said.

According to the Santal leaders, there are around 450,000 Santal Indigenous people in Bangladesh and most of them are now Christian, with some still belonging to their traditional animist religion.

More than half of Bangladesh's estimated 600,000 Christians are from ethnic minority groups like Santal.

Shamsul Huda, executive director of Dhaka-based Association for Land Reforms and Development, a signatory of the statement, said that many Santals left their villages or even the country over persecution in the last decade.

"I strongly demand investigation and punishment of who was involved with the incident. Bangladesh's minorities are often attacked by some politically influential people. ... we want peace," Huda told OSV News.

One Muslim suspect from Dhaka, the capital, was arrested by the Police on Jan. 8.

"We are trying to arrest others and our operation is ongoing," said Bulbul Islam, police officer from the Gaibandha district.

The attack came just weeks after an Indigenous Christian village was burned to the ground just after midnight on Christmas Day in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.

The previous attack occurred in the Bandarban district of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in southeastern Bangladesh, bordering Myanmar, in the the area of the Catholic Archdiocese of Chittagong, also called Chattogram, while residents were away attending midnight Mass in a neighboring village, as there is no church in their village.

Christians account for less than half a percent of more than 170 million people in the Muslim-majority South Asian nation of Bangladesh.