We will take them back if they want

People from religious minorities may have gone to India “due to persecution” after the BNP-led four-party alliance came to power in 2001, said Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader yesterday.

“We will take them back if they want to return,” Quader, also the general secretary of the ruling Awami League, said replying to a question at a press briefing on contemporary issues at his secretariat office.

He also blamed BNP, particularly its Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, for “trying to hide the truth regarding the post-election atrocities against religious minorities in 2001”. 

Anti-liberation party Jamaat-e-Islami was a key member of the four-party alliance.

On Sunday, BNP criticised Indian Home Minister Amit Shah for “unwarranted labelling” of BNP as repressive while passing the much-discussed Citizenship Amendment Act in the country’s parliament.

Quader, however, asked, “Was what the Indian home minister said untrue in the context of Bangladesh?”

The brutal “minority persecution” that had taken place after the 2001 election could only be compared to what had happened in 1971, he said.  

“You journalists know how minorities, especially members of the Hindu community, were tortured. In that situation, it was normal for Hindus to leave the country. Many fled [the country] fearing for their lives and property.”

He said Fakhrul Islam would not be able to hide the truth.

No incident of religious persecution took place after Sheikh Hasina came to power, he said, adding that some isolated incidents had taken place but those did not create any such situation for minorities to leave the country.

Quader said the government has brought the perpetrators of the violence committed in Ramu, Rangpur, Gobindaganj and Nasirganj to book.

Mentioning the post-election repression in 2001 again, Quader said that at the time they were the opposition and they expressed solidarity with the minorities.