Bangla chaos rocks both Houses

New Delhi: Attacks on religious minorities in Bangladesh dominated the proceedings in both Houses of Parliament on Tuesday. While in the Rajya Sabha BJP targeted TMC for “nurturing” illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay raised the issue during the Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha.

Bandyopadhyay said that minorities, including Hindus, are being tortured and killed in Bangladesh and urged the Centre to appeal to the UN to immediately send peacekeeping forces to the country. “Being an immediate neighbour of Bangladesh, West Bengal is directly affected by the happenings there. In the past too, there had been an influx of refugees,” he said.

Bandyopadhyay said that the government has so far maintained silence on the issue and asked external affairs minister S. Jaishankar to apprise the House of the latest developments in the matter.

In Rajya Sabha during the Zero Hour, BJP member Samik Bhattacharya said that the presence of undocumented Rohingya and Bangladeshi immigrants poses a threat to the country’s security.

Later in a post on X, Bhattacharya said, “The issue of infiltration is extremely serious and it is seriously affecting the democracy of the country. While our state is grappling with this serious issue, the state police and administration has turned a complete blind eye to the matter. It is unfortunate and extremely worrying”.

Reportedly, there have been more than 200 attacks on Hindus in 50 districts of Bangladesh since the fall of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government on August 5. Hindus constitute about eight per cent of Bangladesh’s population of 170 million.

On Monday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had urged the Centre to move the UN seeking deployment of a peacekeeping mission in Bangladesh.