Bangladesh rights groups warn of attacks on minorities

Rights groups and diplomats express concern over attacks on minorities in Bangladesh following the ousting of the prime minister.

Rights groups and diplomats in Bangladesh on Tuesday raised concerns at reports of attacks on minorities including Hindus, a day after the prime minister was ousted following mass protests.

Some businesses and homes owned by Hindus — a group seen by some in the Muslim-majority nation as having been close to ousted leader Sheikh Hasina — were attacked on Monday, witnesses said.

Police reported mobs launching revenge attacks on Hasina's allies. Offices of Hasina's Awami League party were torched and looted across the country, eyewitnesses told AFP.

"Houses and shops of minority people were attacked, vandalised and looted, at least 97 places on Monday and Tuesday," Rana Dasgupta, general secretary of Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, said in a statement.

The group said at least 10 Hindu temples were attacked by "miscreants" on Monday.

One Hindu man was beaten to death in Bangladesh's southern Bagerhat district, said a hospital official who requested anonymity due to safety concerns.

"Such attacks on minorities are against the fundamental spirit of the anti-discrimination student movement," said Transparency International Bangladesh head Iftekharuzzaman, who uses one name.