A Hostile State for Minorities
The sense of Justice is gradually reducing in Bangladesh due to terrorist attacks on several minority groups and individuals. The prominent member of Bangladesh’s L.G.B.T. community Xulhaz Mannan, and Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy, a revered theater artist and L.G.B.T. activist, were both brutally murdered at Mr. Mannan’s house on April 25, 2016. His mother a severe Alzheimer’s patient, still asks about her son. He was murdered because he had promoted a revolutionary vision around Bangladesh’s already marginalized L.G.B.T. community. He published Bangladesh’s first L.G.B.T. magazine, Roopbaan.
Not so long after another blogger and organizer of the secularist protests Ahmed Rajib Haider who was an outspoken critic of militant Islamists, was the first to be murdered by machete-wielding assailants. Even though two men were sentenced to death for Mr. Haider’s killing and several others, including Jasimuddin Rahmani, the leader of Ansarullah Bangla Team, received prison sentences; other murders still followed including several intellectuals, religious minorities, foreigners and members of the L.G.B.T. community.
Meanwhile, the governmental approach was to align itself with homophobic, fundamentalist Hefazat-e-Islam. Hefazat is a network of madrasa leaders and students who aims to introduce Shariah in Bangladesh. The group initially established recognition as opposing group during the Shahbag protests of 2013. Since then they have grown into a significant political power. Such approach by government acted as an added fuel to the whole situation making the entire community more hostile within the country.
