Islamist mob in Bangladesh burn down entire village of Hindu youth who was sentenced to jail for alleged ‘blasphemy’

Case ID : 7f64d88 | Location : Rangpur District, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Sat, 16 October, 2021

Case ID : 7f64d88

Rangpur District, Bangladesh

16 October, 2021

Islamist mob in Bangladesh burn down entire village of Hindu youth who was sentenced to jail for alleged ‘blasphemy’

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked over 'Blasphemy'

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

A Hindu youth Paritosh Sarkar in Bangladesh has been sentenced to 11 years in jail by a court for alleged blasphemy. Paritosh Sarkar allegedly posted an image on Facebook in October 2021, which was deemed blasphemous by Muslims. Following the image posted on the social media platform was spotted by Islamists, his village was attacked by a mob, and the entire village was burned down on 17 October 2021. The mob was mobilised by making announcements on the mosque loudspeakers. An entire fishing village of Hindus was burned down by Islamists, as over 60 houses of Hindus were torched in the attack. Before torching the houses, the Islamists had vandalised the village, and looted the houses, taking away valuables, livestock and other items. Hindu temples in the village were vandalised, with the idols broken down. The house of Paritosh was also later vandalised and the cowshed was torched as the police were overpowered by the mob. After the incident, around 150 people were booked in the case, and the trials in three cases registered for the incident are still ongoing. While Paritosh has been convicted and sentenced for the Facebook post, nobody was convicted for the attack on the Hindu village.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

Blasphemy essentially refers to the desecration of anything which is held sacred/holy to a group of people. However, for religious supremacist groups, the elements of ‘blasphemy’ are ever-changing, shifting and expanding – leading to infringement on the rights of other religious groups, freedom of speech and expression, threats and even physical violence. There are instances where blasphemy is also used as a dog whistle to target Hindus owing to intrinsic animosity towards Hinduism. There are several instances where stating truths as mentioned in the non-Hindu doctrine itself has led to unmitigated violence against Hindus. There have also been instances where non-Hindus have themselves created a ‘blasphemous’ situation, like placing a Quran in a temple, to use it as an excuse to attack Hindus. Essentially, Blasphemy charges are often made up and/or are used to shut down any form of criticism of non-Hindu faiths and as a tool to target Hindus. Any physical violence over Blasphemy charges against Hindus are foundationally based on animosity for Hindus and their faith owing to religious supremacist ideologies, therefore, such attacks would be documented as religious motivated hate crimes under this category. The other sub-category that this case has been added to is 'attacked for Hindu identity'. In several cases, Hindus are attacked merely for their Hindu identity without any perceived provocation. A classic example of this category of religiously motivated hate crime is a murder in 2016. 7 ISIS terrorists were convicted for shooting a school principal in Kanpur because they got ‘triggered’ seeing the Kalava on his wrist and tilak that he had put. In this, the Hindu victim had offered no provocation except for his Hindu religious identity. The motivation for the murder was purely religious, driven by religious supremacy. Such cases where Hindus are targeted merely for their religious identity would be documented as a hate crime under this category. In this instance, the Islamist attacked the entire village of a Hindu man accused of blasphemy. Blasphemy essentially refers to the desecration of anything which is held sacred/holy to a group of people. However, Islamists often twist and use these laws to suit their personal agenda against non-Muslims, as in this case, the Islamists torched the entire village from where the Hindu who was accused of committing blasphemy, belonged. The misuse of blasphemy laws against Hindus is often motivated by religious prejudice and hatred, which is why this case has been included in the hate tracker.