Dhaka, July 4 (IANS) A leading minority rights organisation on Saturday warned of a terrifying pattern across Bangladesh, alleging that blasphemy accusations were being used as a weapon against religious minorities in the country, while documenting 17 related cases between January and June this year.
According to the Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities (HRCBM), a new blasphemy allegation against Hindu minority youth Dipto Ray from Tahirpur upazila in Sunamganj district has once again exposed an alarming trend targeting minorities: “a social-media allegation appears, a crowd gathers, police move quickly against the accused, and before any proper digital forensic examination is completed, homes, shops, temples, and entire families are pushed into fear.”
The rights body cited the victim’s family and eyewitnesses, who said that the allegation against Dipto was “false and made on a pretext”.
Referring to the FIR materials it reviewed, HRCBM said the case involves an alleged social media post, police custody, the seizure of a mobile phone, and legal provisions under Bangladesh’s Penal Code and cyber-related law.
However, it said the FIR materials did not appear to establish, at the time of arrest, forensic proof that Dipto personally authored, posted, controlled, or intended the alleged content.
Citing the accounts of the family and eyewitnesses, the rights body said the allegation resulted in public pressure and attacks that impacted the accused youth’s family home, livelihood, and a local religious site.
“For Bangladesh’s minorities, this is no longer an isolated episode. It has become a recurring mechanism of social destruction,” said the HRCBM.
“Over the years,” it said, “hundreds of minority youths and families in Bangladesh have reportedly suffered from blasphemy allegations made on false, manipulated, hacked, impersonated, or otherwise unverified digital pretexts.”
The rights body had previously reported that 73 minority youths were arrested in Bangladesh last year under blasphemy allegations.
The HRCBM further noted that the Tahirpur case underscores a deeper human rights crisis in Bangladesh. The issue, it said, is not simply whether someone posted offensive content but that an accusation alone can become a form of punishment.
“Before a court determines facts, before forensic specialists verify whether an account was hacked, impersonated, manipulated, or falsely attributed, the accused may be taken into custody, family members may be threatened, property may be attacked, and a local minority community may be collectively terrorised,” the rights body highlighted.
HRCBM called on the government of Bangladesh, police authorities, the judiciary, the National Human Rights Commission, UN human-rights mechanisms, diplomatic missions, international digital-rights organisations, and social-media companies to treat the misuse of blasphemy allegations as a “national minority-protection emergency”.
“The Tahirpur case should not disappear as another local incident. It should become a warning. In Bangladesh today, a single accusation can destroy a minority youth’s life, endanger a family, damage a temple, and place an entire community under siege. Until the state breaks this cycle, blasphemy allegations will remain not only a legal issue but also a mechanism of fear, displacement, economic destruction, and collective punishment,” it stressed.
–IANS
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