Kolkata: Prominent Hindu leader Chinmoy Krishna Brahmachari, a spokesperson for the minority association Sanatan Jagaran Mancha, was detained at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport Monday.
Additional Commissioner Rezaul Karim Mallik of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Detective Branch confirmed that Chinmoy Krishna had been taken into custody, bdnews24 reported.
“He was detained based on a requisition following a complaint. He will be handed over to the designated police station accordingly,” the report quoted Mallik as saying.
Speaking to ThePrint over phone, Bangladeshi Hindu rights activist Jayanta Karmakar said the Bangladeshi police had been targeting Brahmachari for a while, ever since he became the “face of the Hindu resistance against targeted attacks by radicals” in Bangladesh.
“Brahmachari led a hugely successful public rally at Chattogram’s Laldighi Maidan on 25 October. A sedition case was filed on 30 October against him and 18 others at Kotwali police station. The administration is afraid of his popularity not just within Bangladesh but abroad as well,” Karmakar said.
Commenting on the detention, exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, currently in India, wrote on X: “Is it not pleasant to see the Hindu awakening? The Yunus government is not only ignoring the 8-point demands of Hindus but is also continually unleashing jihadis, the army, and the police to oppress them.”
The Yunus government has arrested ISKCON leader Chinmoy Krishna Das from Dhaka airport. Under his leadership, Hindus have held two successful rallies in Chittagong and Rangpur. They did so peacefully and did not engage in any violence. So why was he arrested? Is it not pleasant… pic.twitter.com/8ge3wvOuYY
— taslima nasreen (@taslimanasreen) November 25, 2024
Brahmachari has been vocal about the Bangladesh Sanatan Jagaran Mancha’s eight-point demands. These include establishing a special tribunal for swift trials in cases of minority persecution, ensuring compensation and rehabilitation for victims, enacting a minority protection law to ensure security and rights for minorities and other laws to recover and protect ‘Debottar (temple)’ properties, and creating a minority affairs ministry to address the specific needs and issues of minority groups.
On 12 September, Bangladesh’s leading newspaper Prothom Alo put out an investigative report on attacks on minorities in Bangladesh after former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s ouster amid anti-government protests. “According to the findings of investigations carried out by Prothom Alo’s correspondents all over the country (64 districts and 67 upazilas), attacks on the minority community took place in 49 districts. They saw 546 of the damaged houses and business establishments, that is, 51 per cent of the total damaged structures,” the report said.
Commenting on the detention, Kanchan Gupta, senior adviser to India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, wrote on X: “Tallest leader of the Hindu community, Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari is believed to have been taken to Detective Branch of Yunus Regime.”
Hindu leader and ISKCON monk Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari is reported arrested in Dhaka by Yunus Regime Police.
Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari was charged with sedition after he led a massive rally of Hindus protesting targeted hate attacks and demanding protection from…
— Kanchan Gupta ?? (@KanchanGupta) November 25, 2024
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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