No communal killings, Bangla Fact says as it calls Hindu-Buddhist -Christian Council report misleading

BanglaFact, the state-run fact-checking organisation, on Thursday dismissed as misleading a report by the Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Unity Council claiming that 16 members of minority communities were murdered between July and September, with no arrests made in the cases.

Earlier, on Wednesday, Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal urged Bangladesh to protect its minority communities and ensure proper investigations into reported incidents of violence against them. He said the government was expected to handle the matter responsibly.

“It is our expectation that such issues will be addressed by the Bangladeshi side,” he said in response to a journalist who cited the Unity Council report.

In its analysis, BanglaFact said New Delhi’s remarks had come in response to the Council’s report, which was spreading confusion internationally.

The fact-checking organisation said it had examined reports of murders published in the national media during the three-month period in which the victims belonged to minority communities, but had found no evidence of 16 such murders.

It also said the term “communal” needed to be clearly defined.

“The main condition for communal murder is the motive. The victim is killed because of his religion or ethnic identity.”

Beginning with September, BanglaFact said the most widely discussed incident during the three-month period was the killing of four members of a family in Rangpur on the same night.

“Within a few days, the police arrested two young neighbours. Their names are Mughd Das and Siddharth Das… Both belong to the Hindu community.”

Citing reports in the national media, BanglaFact said the killings took place after one of the victims caught the two men consuming yaba on the roof. The rest of the family were subsequently killed. The investigation is still ongoing.

“But it is worth noting that the Oikya Parishad also did not provide any evidence of religious hatred. They alleged that a ‘special group’ carried out the murder to achieve vested interests. Conflict of interest and communal hatred are not the same thing.”

Regarding an incident in Mymensingh on September 23, when a body was found in a plastic drum, BanglaFact said the deceased was identified as Niranjan Chandra Sutradhar, a goldsmith. He was identified through a token found in his pocket. He had sustained injuries to his head and chest from a sharp weapon.

Four days later, the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) arrested a man named Shamim Mia.

“The murder arose from a blackmail dispute over a secretly recorded video. Religion played no role here,” BanglaFact said.

Referring to an incident in Khagrachhari on July 6, BanglaFact said three Chakma youths were shot dead, but police said the killings stemmed from a dispute between regional political parties.

“The struggle for supremacy among armed hill tribes in the Chittagong Hill Tracts is decades old. The victims here are from hill tribes. The accused parties are also from hill tribes. There is no basis to call this oppression of minorities by the majority.”

Other deaths and arrests

BanglaFact said reports of the recovery of several other bodies belonging to members of minority communities had circulated during the three-month period.

“If these are counted as ‘murders’, the account becomes even more distorted,” BanglaFact said, noting that one case involved an unnatural death rather than murder, while another was found to be a suicide.

Addressing the Council’s claim that no arrests had been made, BanglaFact said two people had been arrested and had given statements in the Rangpur case. It also said the main accused in the Mymensingh case had been arrested by the PBI.

In its statement on Wednesday, the Council said “the heinous activities of communal miscreants are increasing” ahead of Durga Puja and cited the figures on the reported murders.

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