Bangladesh
Sheikh Hasina Being a secular country, Bangladesh immediately takes action when minorities are attacked: PM
Own Correspondent, Dhaka, Sept 5: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said she wanted to assure Bangladesh's predominantly Hindu community and the world community that her government strongly supports secularism and that any attempt to disrupt communal harmony will be dealt with immediately.
In an interview with South Asia's leading multimedia news agency ANI before her visit to India, she said that extremism was not limited to her country, as many countries including India were witnessing it. She said one of the reasons for the growing extremism is social media, which has become "very bad these days".
Sheikh Hasina said, "As long as we are in power, we always give importance to it and I always tell them (minorities) that you are our citizens. You also have a responsibility towards the country. But sometimes we take action even if something happens. It happens sometimes, it happened, it's a very undesirable situation but it's not only Bangladesh, even in India sometimes minorities suffer."
There have been reports of attacks and hostilities against the Hindu minority in Bangladesh. Some reports mention attacks on Durga Puja pandals or places of worship. However, when asked about the attack on the Hindu community, Sheikh Hasina said that both countries should show kindness.
She said, "I think that both countries should show kindness, you know Bangladesh is a secular country and we have many religions here. And here the harmony of religion is very high. So when one or two things happen... especially my party... people in my party, they are much more aware and so is my government. We take immediate action."
When she was asked to comment on the role of bloggers and extremist communities on social media, Sheikh Hasina said it is not desirable that people should write something to hurt each other. Her government tried to prevent any such activity.
Prime Minister said, "Extremism is now everywhere. Even if you look in India or other countries, you can find it in many countries around the world. It's become very... very bad these days because of social media. Some write occasionally. It also reacts instantly, but we have tried our best to control it. We never support it. Every religion has a right to practice their religion properly and one should not say anything that hurts another religion."
