Spell out stand on attack on Hindus in Bangladesh, Trinamool tells Centre

Trinamool Congress on Tuesday demanded that the external affairs minister spell out in Parliament India's stand on violence in Bangladesh against members of the minority Hindu community.

Raising the matter in the Lok Sabha, Trinamool leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay also echoed party chief and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee's demand that India approach the United Nations and demand that a peacekeeping force be sent to Bangladesh.

Minorities and the Hindus are being tortured and killed in Bangladesh, which neighbours the state of West Bengal, Bandyopadhyay said. "The Government of India is totally silent now, the reason of which is best known to them. Our appeal is that the external affairs minister come to Parliament and inform us of its stand on the latest position in Bangladesh," he said.


Noting that the West Bengal assembly has adopted a resolution that the state government would stand by any decision made by the Centre, he said: "We want to work together."

BJP MP Jagannath Sarkar deplored the attack on Hindus in Bangladesh and arrest of Chinmoy Krishna Das, and lamented its fallout in West Bengal in the form of riots. "Violence is being committed with the support of the government of Bangladesh against those who identify themselves as Bengali Hindus. Even Chinmoy Krishna Das has been arrested," Sarkar said, adding: "On a daily basis infiltrators are coming from Bangladesh to West Bengal and destroying the balance of our population. There have been riots in parts of Hooghly, Howrah, Nadia. But the state remains inactive."