New York:
In a strong attraction to the worldwide group, Hindu American teams flew a large airline banner, calling for pressing world motion to cease the continued violence of Hindus in Bangladesh.
The massive banner flew over the Hudson River and circled the Statue of Liberty, a worldwide image of human dignity, freedom, and equality.
The 1971 genocide, as documented by US Congress Decision HR 1430 in 2022, claimed 2.8 million lives and noticed at the least 200,000 predominantly Hindu ladies raped, leaving an indelible mark on the area.
Since then, Bangladesh’s Hindu inhabitants has dwindled from 20 per cent in 1971 to simply 8.9 per cent as we speak.
Latest studies of focused violence, systematic impoverishment, lynchings, kidnappings of minor women, and compelled job resignations affecting as much as 200,000 Hindus, together with property seizures, pose a severe existential menace to the 13 to fifteen million Hindus dwelling within the nation.
Since August 5, 2024, there have been round 250 verified assaults and over 1,000 reported incidents.
Sitangshu Guha, from the Bangladesh Hindu Neighborhood and one of many occasion organisers, highlighted the menace and acknowledged, “Hindus in Bangladesh are on the verge of extinction. Hopefully, this may increase consciousness among the many civilised world and immediate the UN to take motion to save lots of the victims of militant Islamic forces in Bangladesh. If Bangladesh turns into Hindu-free, it should change into Afghanistan 2.0, and militants will unfold to neighbouring India and different components of the world, together with the West. That is everybody’s downside.”
Pankaj Mehta, one other activist and member of the Interfaith Human Rights Coalition who helped organise the occasion, added, “It’s time for the UN Human Rights Council to place apart politics and formally recognise the 1971 Bangladesh genocide, the biggest genocide since World Battle II. Three US-based organisations–The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, Genocide Watch, and the Worldwide Coalition of Websites of Conscience–have already recognised the atrocities dedicated by Pakistani occupation forces and their Islamist allies in 1971 as genocide, primarily concentrating on the Hindu minority. The UN should comply with swimsuit and take steps to forestall one other looming genocide.”
Surjit Chowdhary, founding member of Sree Gita Sangha in New Jersey, US, urged the Bangladesh authorities to cease all violence towards the Hindu group and tackle political variations by democratic processes.
The rise of Islamist fundamentalism in Bangladesh poses a severe menace to India, because it has the potential to unfold by porous borders, affecting West Bengal and past, with present ties between radical forces on either side.
Additionally it is elevating issues amongst mainstream People, much like the anxieties seen in the course of the Afghanistan disaster. Humanitarian watchdogs are carefully monitoring the worsening circumstances in Bangladesh, fearing that escalating violence might result in a full-scale genocide.
People are being urged to boycott Bangladeshi clothes, which account for 85 per cent of the nation’s export earnings, till the violence ceases and the perpetrators are dropped at justice.
A plea has been made to executives of main patrons of Bangladeshi garments–such as Walmart, H&M, Hole Inc., Goal, PVH Corp, and VF Company–to halt shipments from Bangladesh, as financial assist for the nation as we speak is seen as enabling terrorism towards Hindus and different minorities.
The Jewish group in America has additionally expressed solidarity with the Hindu minority, drawing parallels to the atrocities dedicated by Hamas terrorists in Israel. Simply because the world rallied towards extremist violence in Israel, many are actually calling for rapid intervention in Bangladesh to forestall additional atrocities.
The occasion was live-streamed on StopHinduGenocide.org, the place all atrocities are being methodically documented, together with historic context and the ominous future dealing with Bangladesh’s Hindus except the worldwide group takes motion.