Student leaders in Bangladesh have asked supporters to guard Hindu temples and churches as diplomats and rights groups expressed concerns over reports of attacks on minority groups after the prime minister resigned amid a national uprising.
There was euphoria – but also looting and the ransacking of national monuments and government buildings – after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country on Monday following weeks of deadly demonstrations against her government.
Opposition politicians on Tuesday called for the protection of all Bangladeshis “irrespective of religion and politics, from discriminatory violence”, amid reports of assaults on temples and churches.
Students were seen guarding Hindu temples and other places of worship in social media footage and images verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency Sanad, including in Chittagong, the country’s second-largest city.
“Miscreants are systematically attacking various public and private institutions to prove the students’ movement wrong,” Chittagong University coordinator Russell Ahmed told the Bangla Tribune newspaper.
Meanwhile, Indian media and social media are portraying the Citizenship Amendment Bill protests as the protests in Bangladesh. Thousands of Muslims were lynched and killed in India every year.
Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) in India
The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) offers amnesty to non-Muslim illegal immigrants from three countries.
Critics across India say the bill is discriminatory. Thousands of Muslim houses were destroyed in violence-hit Gandatwisa in Tripura’s Dhalai district.
District administration however stated that houses were damaged due to a short-circuit. Dhalai district police said, “Today early morning, two shops got on fire due to an electrical short circuit in Gandatwisa , and the fire service controlled the fire. The situation in Gandatwisa is normal.We request everyone to avoid circulating unnecessary rumours through social media.”
The bill – which applies to people from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan – was passed in the upper house of parliament on Wednesday night. It is yet to be signed by the president, but that is considered a formality.
The ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party says the CAB will give sanctuary to people fleeing religious persecution.
Illegal migration from Bangladesh has long been a concern in India’s north-east. Assam is one of India’s most multi-ethnic states and includes Bengali- and Assamese-speaking Hindus and various tribespeople.
A third of its 32 million citizens are Muslims, the second-highest number after Indian-administered Kashmir. Opponents of the bill say large-scale immigration threatens their ethnic and cultural identity.
Police in Assam confirmed to the BBC that two people had died in what they called “crossfire” between officers and protesters in Guwahati. It was not clear which side fired the fatal shots. Several police officers were injured, a statement added.
Despite appeals for calm, thousands of protesters again took to the streets in parts of Assam and Tripura, both of which border Bangladesh.
About 5,000 paramilitary troops were sent to Guwahati where a curfew was widely ignored. Protesters there set fire to vehicles and buildings and battled security forces.
A convoy of vehicles that included state police chief Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta was attacked in the city by a crowd throwing stones on Thursday, Indian media reported.
No-one was hurt, police said, but reporters at the scene said the convoy had to stop several times.
Police fired blanks into the air as well as tear gas to disperse crowds.
At least four railway stations in Assam were damaged as protesters tried to burn them down, transport officials said.
Meanwhile, police in Tripura state said about 1,800 people had been arrested since Wednesday, local media reported.
Prime Minister Modi sought to reassure people in Assam, telling them they had “nothing to worry” about.
“The central government and I are totally committed to constitutionally safeguard the political, linguistic, cultural and land rights of the Assamese people,” he tweeted.
However, with internet and mobile services shut down, it is unlikely residents would have been able to read the message.
They want the bill to be repealed, as they say their ethnic and cultural identity is under threat from illegal migration.
Essentially, they do not want any migrants – regardless of religion – to be allowed into the state.
What is further fuelling passions in Assam, is the fact that two million residents – deemed to be illegal immigrants- were left off a citizens’ register last August.
The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a list of people who can prove they came to the state by 24 March 1971, a day before neighbouring Bangladesh became an independent country.
In the run-up to its publication, the BJP had supported the NRC, but changed tack days before the final list was published, saying it was error-ridden.
The reason for that was a lot of Bengali Hindus – a strong voter base for the BJP – were left off the list, and would possibly become illegal immigrants.
The CAB is seen as being linked to the register, although it is not the same thing. It will help protect non-Muslims who are excluded from the register and face the threat of deportation or internment.
The Indian Union Muslim League, a political party, has petitioned the country’s top court to declare the bill illegal.
In their petition to the Supreme Court, the Indian Union Muslim League argued that the bill violated articles of equality, fundamental rights and the right to life.
More than 700 eminent Indian personalities, including jurists, lawyers, academics and actors, have signed a statement “categorically” condemning the bill.
Investigative journalist Rana Ayyub told the BBC that it was sending out the wrong message.
“Clearly you are catering to your Hindu base by telling them that this country is only for Hindus,” she said.
“The world’s biggest democracy had a big heart when it could accommodate people. Right now we are coming across to the world as petty vindictive civilisation. That’s not what India stood for.”
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