At an Iftar party organized in Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Sylhet, Hindus were also given beef to eat. There was no option to substitute beef in the Iftar menu provided at the venue. The incident has created an uproar in social media.
At least 20 party leaders and Hindu activists attended the Iftar party organized by the BNP’s Sylhet unit on Thursday, Bangladesh newspapers reported. The event is usually attended by Muslims and members of other communities. The plates served for Iftar included beef, along with other dishes.
Even invited journalists from Hindu communities were allegedly offered beef. Following the incident, local Hindus of BNP took to Facebook to condemn the organisers. Expressing his anger at the invitation, Mantu Nath, a local member of the BNP, wrote, “I and 20 other Hindu colleagues had to watch all Muslim leaders and activists break their fast due to the lack of an option to substitute beef.”
Kanak Kanti Das, a local leader of the BNP’s student wing, described the arrangement as a farce and said, “You enjoyed your iftar and we Hindus kept watching the invite bus”. Let us tell you that without apologizing, the leaders of BNP Sylhet district later accepted it.
Columnist and Ekshi medalist Ajay Das Gupta said the military rulers who occupied and ruled Bangladesh for 15 years legitimized the pro-Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami. He also introduced constitutional amendments that undermined the country’s secular democratic polity and eventually declared Islam the state religion of Bangladesh.
He said some parties, such as the BNP and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami, have tried to restore the “Pakistani military-radical model of radical Islam”, but were unsuccessful.
The rise of Tariq Rehman as the party’s de facto leader was followed by a systematic genocide against Hindus even during the BNP’s 2001–2006 tenure. This led to large-scale systematic land grabbing, attacks on temples and businesses, and rape. While in opposition, the BNP has been accused of aiding the Jamaat in carrying out attacks on Hindus during war crimes trials. The involvement of BNP and Jamaat elements has been found during the recent attacks during the Durga Puja violence of 2021.