From: budaraju@cae.wisc.edu (Srinivas Budaraju)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.bangladesh
Subject: Re: treatment of minority footnote
Date: 15 Apr 92 03:19:17 GMT
Organization: College of Engineering, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison

In article <NAEEM.92Apr14194715@occs.cs.oberlin.edu> naeem@occs.cs.oberlin.edu (Naeem Mohaiemen) writes:

>In article <1992Apr13.225623.6742@doug.cae.wisc.edu> budaraju@cae.wisc.edu (Srinivas Budaraju) writes:

>   Following are excerpts from "Unnatural Disasters" by G.R. Chowdhury,
>   Cultural Survival Quarterly, Winter 1992, PP 14-17. 

>.[T]he Pakistani army has killed three million people in nine
>   months during the course of Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence. Ten
>   million refugees took shelter in India. Most victims were members of the
>   Hindu minority.
>-------
>Majority of the 3 million dead were Hindu? Could you please post G R 
>Chowdhury's footnotes on this items?

I can only add more quotes from the same reference:

"Over 70 % of those killed and those who became refugees were Hindu and
other minorities. Bengali police and the Pakistani army frequently
stopped men, stripped them naked to check whether they were circumcised
or not, and asked them to recite from the Koran...Many books cover this
subject, almost all in Bengali; "Bhayabaha Aviggata" (Terrifying 
Experience) covers over 50 instances in which the Pakistani army and
its collaborators murdered Hindus and Mulsims.."

There is some problem with the way the author presents his case though.
I don't know whether 'most victims were members of the Hindu community'
refers to the refugees or to those killed by the Pakistani army.

>   ...under the [Enemy Property Act] the government can confiscate minority
>   properties and businesses with no compensation or notice simply by declaring
>   a person to be an enemy of the state. 
>-------
>This is also well documented in "Byshomyer shikar Bangladesh er Hindu 
>Shomproday"


>			 This wave reached its height with the destruction
>   or desecration of perhaps 80 % of Bangladesh's Hindu-Buddhist temples 
>   and the devastation of thousands of Hindu homes and businesses between
>   October 30 and November 1, 1990...
>---------
>Could you please supply the footnote for this statistic as well? Awami 
>League workers claimed that the attacks on Hindu homes were engineered
>by Pres. Ershad's ruling Jatiyo party to distract attention from the
>anti govt riots that were reaching their peak at the time. Indeed, the
>govt's first move was to clamp dawn to dusk curfew, which effectively
>stopped anti govt demos from forming (This action is particularly curious
>when you consider that Ershad govt passed bill to make Islam state religion
>and is therefore hardly beacon of secularism).

Again, quoting from the same reference:

" 'The Disgrace', edited by Debashis Nandi in Bangladesh, lists 150
temples totally or partially destroyed or desecrated in the city of
Chittagong alone. In February 1991, the Bangladeshi journal 'Parishad
Barta' listed thousands of temples, churches, homes and businesses
destroyed between October 30 and November 1, 1991. It also listed
Christian churches, schools, hospitals, and homes attacked in January
and February 1991 at the beginning of the Gulf War. 'Anjali', a book
published in Dhaka in 1991, lists another several hundred temples
destroyed, damaged or desecrated."

>--
>Naeem Mohaiemen  naeem@occs.cs.oberlin.edu  snm8696@oberlin  216-774-1993
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>"God forbid if Pakistan should ever break up"
>				[Gulam Azam, press conference]
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

From the same reference:

Minority Hiring in Bangladesh:

Administration (officers)		5%
Administration (lower rank)		3 - 5%
Administration (secretaries)		0 %
Customs & Excise			0 %
Income-tax officials			1.5 %
Military officers			1.5 %

Military soldiers			0 %
Border security				0 %
Police, officers			6 %
Police, rank & file			2.5 %
Major bank managers			0 %

Embassy & consulate staff		0 %
Foreign assignments			0 %
Home ministry				0 %
Judiciary				0 %
Ministry of defense			0 %

Industry managers			1 %
Industrial laboreres			3-4 %
Recent bank loans			< 1 %
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-Srinivas				budaraju@cae.wisc.edu