Bangladeshi Iskcon monks living in fear and shifting locations: Spokesperson

Kolkata: Bangladeshi Iskcon monks are living in fear and many are travelling from one location to another to escape atrocities and due to lack of safety, following the arrest and denial of bail to Chinmoy Krishna Das, one of the monks of their religious order, people in the know told ET.

Iskcon spokesperson Radharaman Das said Chinmoy Krishna Das has been charged with sedition for leading a peaceful protest. "Chinmoy Krishna Das was the face of the minority movement in Bangladesh. The protest organised under him was very peaceful. He was requesting the government to meet their eight-point demands like safety of people, new houses for people whose houses have been set ablaze and so on. The government, instead of listening to him, put sedition charges against him," Radharaman Das said.

"There is tremendous fear and lack of safety. We are being continuously threatened and living in fear, especially in areas which are Muslim dominated," Iskcon Temple-Meherpur director Sumohan Mukunda Das told ET over phone from Bangladesh. He said the present government is not sympathetic toward Iskcon monks.


"If a big organisation like Iskcon can be uprooted, Hindu organisations can be easily brought under pressure," the monk said. "We condemn the arrest and demand immediate release of Chinmoy Krishna Das from custody," said a Hindu-Bouddha-Christian Oikya Parishad representative.