Hindu American groups made a clarion call to the global community by organizing a large airline banner, urging immediate action to stop the ongoing genocide of Hindus in Bangladesh. The banner flew over the Hudson River and circled the Statue of Liberty, a global symbol of human dignity, freedom, and equality on Oct. 3.
The initiative follows recent reports of targeted violence, systematic impoverishment, lynchings, kidnappings of minor girls, and forced job resignations impacting up to 200,000 Hindus, alongside property seizures, which present a significant existential threat to the 13 to 15 million Hindus residing in the country. Since August 5, 2024, there have been around 250 verified attacks and over 1,000 reported incidents.
Furthermore, a U.S. Congress Resolution HR 1430 in 2022 documented that the 1971 genocide in Bangladesh resulted in 2.8 million fatalities and involved the rape of at least 200,000 predominantly Hindu women. Since then, Bangladesh’s Hindu population has dwindled from 20 percent in 1971 to just 8.9 percent today.
Sitangshu Guha, from the Bangladesh Hindu Community and one of the event organizers, highlighted the threat, stating, “Hindus in Bangladesh are on the verge of extinction. Hopefully, this will raise awareness among the civilized world and prompt the UN to take action to save the victims of militant Islamic forces in Bangladesh. If Bangladesh becomes Hindu-free, it will become Afghanistan 2.0, and militants will spread to neighboring India and other parts of the world, including the West. This is everyone’s problem.”
Pankaj Mehta, another activist and member of the Interfaith Human Rights Coalition who helped organize the event, added, “It is time for the UN Human Rights Council to put aside politics and officially recognize the 1971 Bangladesh genocide, the largest genocide since World War II. Three U.S.-based organizations—The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, Genocide Watch, and the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience—have already recognized the atrocities committed by Pakistani occupation forces and their Islamist allies in 1971 as genocide, primarily targeting the Hindu minority. The UN must follow suit and take steps to prevent another looming genocide.”
Surjit Chowdhary, founding member of Sree Gita Sangha in New Jersey, USA, urged the Bangladesh government to stop all violence against the Hindu community and address political differences through democratic processes. The group also made a plea to executives of major buyers of Bangladeshi garments—such as Walmart, H&M, Gap Inc., Target, PVH Corp, and VF Corporation—to halt shipments from Bangladesh, aas a form of protest.
The Jewish community in America has also expressed solidarity with the Hindu minority, drawing parallels to the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists in Israel.
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