Members of Winnipeg’s Bangladeshi community protested Saturday against violence in the southern Asian country targeting the country’s Hindu and religious minority populations.
The demonstrations come on the heels of its former prime minister stepping down and fleeing the country earlier this week.
Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country Monday following weeks of protests against a quota system for government jobs that devolved into violence. In the wake of her resignation, fears rose among Hindus that they might be targeted in the unrest since they are generally thought to be supporters of Hasina’s party.
And for many in Winnipeg, those fears are coming true.
“People over there don’t feel very safe and protected, so they’re staying up all night, guarding their houses and their family,” said Shubhrakam Shome, a Winnipegger originally from Bangladesh.
“We as Canadians, because those people are our relatives and friends, we are really concerned,” he said.
Hindus, who make up about eight per cent of Bangladesh’s population of 170 million, have traditionally supported Hasina’s Awami League party, which sparked people’s anger after violent clashes between anti-quota protesters and security forces last month.
Protests from frustrated students demanding an end to a system they said favoured those with connections to Hasina’s party began peacefully last month, but later morphed into an unprecedented challenge to the party and Hasina’s 15-year rule.
Attempts to quell the demonstrations with force, leaving nearly 300 people dead since mid-July, also fuelled outrage against the government.
The protests continued even after the Supreme Court last month ruled that the quota system — which set aside up to 30 per cent of government jobs for family members of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence against Pakistan — must be drastically cut.
Following Hasina’s resignation Monday, a school teacher was killed and at least 45 people injured as homes, businesses, and Hindu temples in Muslim-majority Bangladesh were targeted.
Shome said Saturday’s protest also called for the safety of Christians and Buhdists who are from or are living in Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council estimates at least 52 of the country’s 64 districts have been impacted by communal violence since Aug. 5 and has sought the help of Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist who took charge as head of a caretaker administration on Thursday.
The office of the United Nations Secretary General has also said the violence in Bangladesh should be “tamped down,” adding it stands against any “racially based attacks” or “racially based incitement to violence.”
Thousands of Bangladeshi Hindus have been trying to flee to neighbouring India to escape the violence.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also appealed for the “safety and protection” of Hindus and Bangladesh’s other minorities in a message on X on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Winnipegger Shuvodip Das said his in-laws’ house in Bangladesh has been vandalized and his people are in panic mode.
“They are living in constant fear because their life has been threatened, there is a constant pressure to evacuate the country, to leave the country and go to India,” he said.
And Shome said he hopes all levels of Canadian government will help as well and “exert pressure on the new interim government.
“So that they can make arrangements for protection of people, of citizens, primarily the minorities, those who are under attack.”