Cross-section demands justice

Bangladesh Christian Association yesterday said religious minorities were anxious and uncertain about their safety as attacks on them continued to take place.

The association leaders also urged the government to take "proactive measures to restore normalcy" in the country.

"Six Christians were attacked and four of them were killed in the last six months. The victims were innocent and we demand justice for their murder," Nirmol Rozario, secretary general of the association, told a human chain formed in front of the capital's Jatiya Press Club.

"Perhaps killers or their sympathisers are lurking amid us and are a part of the society," he mentioned, adding that even those who were not religious minorities, were also living in fear as any person with different views was being targeted.

Unidentified assailants on June 5 hacked to death Sunil Gomez in Baraigram upazila of Natore.

In Jhenidah Sadar, seventy-year-old Ananda Gopal Ganguly was barbarically murdered on Tuesday when he was going to a temple in Naldanga union, while in Chittagong city a police official's wife, Mahmuda Akter, was murdered in broad daylight on Sunday.

"The prime minister should clarify whether the zero tolerance rule she talks about, will actually be implemented. The nation wants to know this," said Nirmol.

"The killings are alarming. But what makes us more anxious is that the killers are neither being identified nor brought to book," he added.

Mentioning that 25 non-Muslim persons were murdered in the last two years, Nirmol also castigated the prevailing culture of impunity for such attacks.

Different organisations including Dhaka Young Men's Christian Association, Jatiya Church Parishad, Dhaka Christian Co-operatives, and Bangladesh Garo Chhatra Shongothon joined the human chain.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Udichi Shilpi Goshthi, and Bangladesh Chhatra Union (BCU) and Bangladesh Jubo Union (BJU), too, held separate rallies in the capital, protesting the murders and demanding proper investigation and trial, reports our DU correspondent.

"Such killings will continue if there will be no justice for their murder," BCU president Lucky Akhter told the Udichi's rally held at Shahbagh. She also alleged that the government was trying to cover up the incidents.

BJU general secretary Hafiz Adnan Riad said,"51 murders have been perpetrated in same manner in 18 months, but there is no trial."

The speakers demanded the government strengthen security measures and conduct proper probe into the all incidents.