The government is planning to form a speedy tribunal soon to prosecute the perpetrators of the recent attacks on Hindus in different parts of the country, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairman Mizanur Rahman said yesterday.
The NHRC chief noted that it would be ideal to promulgate a separate and independent law to safeguard minority groups. Until then, the cases of repression of religious minorities could be tried under the existing Anti-Terrorism Act, Fast Trial Act and Public Safety Act.
Mizanur made the remarks while addressing a consultation meeting titled “Human Rights and Communal Harmony: Our Role”, organised by the NHRC at the Cirdap auditorium in the capital.
The commission arranged the meeting after visiting several places where suspected Jamaat-Shibir activists carried out attacks against Hindu families, for casting votes in the 10th parliamentary polls, which were boycotted by the BNP-led 18-party alliance.
The NHRC was mandated to come up with some recommendations and place them before the prime minister to punish the culprits and tackle future attacks.
Describing the brutality and tense situation she witnessed during a visit to Kornai village in Dinajpur, writer Selina Hossain said: “Women said they were living in fear. They showed us a corn field and said the Jamaat men had threatened to take them there and rape them, and there would be no police, human rights activists or anyone else to protect them after a few months.”
“In 1971 Muslim neighbours protected many Hindu families from the Pakistani forces. But now, neighbours fear to come forward as the attackers are known faces,” human rights activist Aroma Dutta said, narrating her experience after visiting Abhoynagar in Jessore.
“We did not see any youths standing beside them, no elected representatives of union, thana or district-level stood by them. Why?” questioned columnist Syed Abul Moksud.
Admitting the government’s failure in handling the situation, Tajul Islam, former state minister for liberation war affairs, said: “Attacks also took place in the past, but we could not try any of the culprits. Had we been successful earlier, such incidents would have been minimised.”
The participants said there should be a system in place so that local lawmakers are held liable and made to give statements before the parliament for any incidents of violence against minorities in their constituencies.
