Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman on Thursday urged people to stay alert against anti-social forces that he said were trying to damage the country’s atmosphere of harmony. He made the appeal while joining the Hindu community for Janmashtami celebrations in Dhaka.
Speaking at a state-sponsored reception and honorarium distribution programme for prominent members of the Hindu community, priests and sebaits at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium, Rahman said people of different faiths in Bangladesh had lived together for generations with mutual respect, but some groups were trying to destabilise the country through social media.
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“We must all remain vigilant so that anti-social forces cannot raise their heads again and no one can destroy the existing atmosphere of harmony,” Rahman said.
He said repeated attempts were being made to create divisions and provoke communal tensions. “I urge everyone to remain vigilant so that communal provocation or hatred does not become a cause of unrest in our society,” the prime minister said.
Rahman said everyone had the right to practise their own religion and everyone had the right to security. “The identity of political affiliation, religion, ethnicity or other distinctions in the state and society should not become a cause of division and discrimination among people,” he said at the event.
“Let us all consider ourselves Bangladeshis, not minorities or majorities,” he said.
In the past two years, several rights groups, including Amnesty International, urged successive transitional and political administrations in Bangladesh to take urgent and concrete steps to guarantee the safety of minority faiths in the country.
The government had earlier said most incidents of violence against minorities arose from political rivalries or ordinary criminal activity rather than systematic religious persecution.
Rahman later distributed honorariums to priests and sebaits from different parts of the country, as he called on people to remain united and guard against attempts to disturb communal harmony.
With PTI Inputs
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
