Religious minorities vulnerable in Bangladesh: US

October 16, 2007

Attacks on religious and ethnic minorities continued to be

a " problem " in Bangladesh despite the country's declared stance for

freedom of religion and inter-community amity, the US has said.

" There were reports of societal abuses and discrimination based on

religious belief or practice....Religious minorities were vulnerable

due to their relatively limited influence with political elites, "

said the US State Department's International Religious Freedom

Report 2007 on Bangladesh, which was released from Washington on

Friday.

The report of the US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour of

the State Department, said violence directed against religious

minority communities continued to result in the loss of lives and

property.

Many Hindus in the Muslim-dominated country, it said, have been

unable to recover landholdings lost because of discrimination under

the now-defunct Vested Property Act, a pre-independence era law that

allowed the government to expropriate " enemy " lands.

The government seized approximately 2.5 million acres of land from

Hindus, affecting almost all of the 10 million strong community,

until Parliament in April 2001 scrapped the law stipulating that

land seized under the act be returned to its original owners,

provided that the original owners or their heirs remained resident

citizens.

According to a recent study conducted by a Dhaka University

professor, nearly 200,000 Hindu families lost approximately 40,667

acres of land since 2001, despite the annulment of the Vested

Property Act.

Read details about Bangladesh atrocities at :

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