The Forum for Protection of Minorities in Bangladesh (FPMB), an organization of various temple management groups and intellectuals, has announced the third protest program to protest the alleged crimes against religious and ethnic minorities in neighboring countries. The group has called for a ‘long march’ on December 28 to express outrage over the violence and continued detention of former International Society for Krishna Consciousness officer Chinmoy Krishna Das.
The call is similar to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s December 11 ‘Long March to Agartala’ to protest the vandalism and disrespect shown to the Bangladeshi national flag at its subsidiary high commission in Agartala earlier this month.
Immediately after the incident, the Assistant High Commissioner of the Diplomatic Mission, Arif Muhammad, was called to Dhaka. However, the Bangladesh MEA website still lists him as the Chief of Mission in Agartala.
Protests by temple organizations that began after the fall of the Awami League government over alleged persecution of minorities intensified after Mr. Das’s arrest. There has been no daily performance for a week.
FPMB’s ‘Long March’ will end at Agartala Integrated Check Post (ICP) on December 28, organizers said on Thursday assuring that the rally will not attempt to cross the border. Police sources said that all the processions going towards ICP have been stopped two kilometers from the border and this will also be applied to the procession of FPMB.
published – December 19, 2024 at 10:59 am IST