Minors targeted by Islamic militants

Dhaka , Bangladesh, May 21 — Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar [Child Rights] Forum is a network of 263 Bangladesh NGOs working in the area of child rights. According to Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum (BSAF), 394 children disappeared in Bangladesh in 2008.

The Bangladesh government has failed to protect and promote the rights of Bangladesh’s minors over the years. Minor children of ethnic and religious minorities have especially become the victims of rape, gang rape, kidnapping, and forceful conversion. Bangladesh has become a land of human rights violations; it has a high record of human rights violations against minors in Bangladesh.

Rising Islamic militancy has become a threat to minors in Bangladesh. Many Hindus were forced to leave the country because of communal violence.

In Bangladesh, there are 69,000 Qaomi [Koranic] madrassas. More than 700 militant training camps are in operation within these madrassas, according to press reports. Militants returning from fighting in Afghanistan or Kashmir, Palestine or Chechnya are training the young students of the madrassas with an agenda of shifting Bangladesh from its present democratic structure to an Islamic caliphate run by the Taliban. Minor children are targeted by Islamic militants to be indoctrinated with jihad ideology.

Recently, a Hindu minor, Poresh Chandra Sarker, age 13, disappeared with hardly a trace. After being missing for a long time, his parents received a letter, along with 58 dollars, telling them they would get their son back if they converted to Islam. The parents went to the police, but the police, being partial, left the boy in the hands of the Islamic fascists.

Afterwards, the parents approached the courts, but the courts sent the boy to safe custody instead of back to the parents. Finally, much later, with the help of the local human rights organization Sonatan International Foundation and the work of 37 lawyers, the boy was given back to custody of the parents.

Now, Poresh and his parents are reconciled. The Sonatan Foundation and International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) came to help the poor family. During his disappearance, Poresh was indoctrinated with jihad ideology and was forcefully converted to Islam. ISKCON, who gave the family temporary shelter, fears that they will be persecuted by Islamic fascists for doing so.

Jasada Nandan Acharjee, Sebait (chief priest) and Executor of Swai Bag Ashram, said to Asia News, “I do believe in the religious freedom of all people, but I highly condemn what happened to the poor Hindu boy Poresh. Islamic fascists brainwashed the boy with a message of hatred and jihad, and that is a violation of human rights.” He said that very often those minor children are targeted by Islamic militants to be indoctrinated with jihad ideology.

Rupauga Goar Das Bramachary of ISKCON said that, from the first time Poresh said that he would sacrifice his life for Allah, he was indoctrinated with the idea of jihad, but that now, after hearing the religious teachings of the Sonatan (Hindu) religion, he denied what he said before.

He also said, “We do believe in the religious freedom of every soul. When he is mature, he is entitled to any religion, but no one should misuse a minor child by indoctrinating them with the idea of Islamic jihad, destroying the boy and, through the boy, endangering other people’s lives.”

ISKCON Food for Life gave shelter to this boy and his parents, but are fearful about security. They feel responsible for the whole Hindu community related with them. For the sake of Poresh, the whole temple and other Hindus living nearby risk facing communal violence. The Sonatan International Foundation is helping the family to get legal aid.

Joint Secretary Pinaki Das said, “We have observed that some of the Islamic fascists are standing guard outside of the ISKCON temple. We are not sure how they came to know about the presence of the family in this temple, since only we knew about the presence of Poresh and his family at this ISCKON temple.”