Press Conference regarding Protecting a Buddhist Religious Idol & Buddhist Community in Bangladesh

Media invitation for press briefing

Press Conference regarding “Protecting a Buddhist Religious Idol named Ven Sharanangkar Thera and Buddhist community as well as other religious and minority groups of Rangunia of Chittagong district in Bangladesh from a Cycle of mischief”.

Dear Media Representatives,

We would like to invite you to participate in an online Zoom meeting for the media on Tuesday 17 November from 9.00AM PST until 11.00AM (US and Canada)

In this press briefing, several specialized Human Rights Prosecutors & experts & Buddhist religious Idol Venerable Sharanangkar Thera will participate under the orchestration of a US based organization Nirbankami INC.

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0kd-mqrz0jHdAk6UYhmbyypgpbtrJHeZsT

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about

joining the meeting.

For further information:

Snehashis Priya Barua

Executive Director

Nirbankami Inc

4794 N Pershing Ave

San Bernardino

CA 92407, USA

Mobile: +1 909 531 3479

Barua910@yahoo.com

If you would like to have this press releases delivered electronically to your inbox, please send us an email to barua910@yahoo.com

Dear

On behalf of the Bangladeshi Buddhists, we are telling you in great desperation to seek the assistance of you to stop the ongoing violent persecution of Buddhist Monks and Buddhist communities, as well as other religious and minority groups of Rangunia of Chittagong district in Bangladesh.

The religious minority Buddhists community, particularly the monks of Rangunia Upazila Sub-district’ in the Chittagong region of Bangladesh has been subjected to sectarian violence in the past few months. The Buddhists have no way to get the attention of the Prime Minister of the country, Honorable Sheikh Hasina, who alone can redress their grievances because one of her fellow party members is intricately involved with the violence. An important Awami league cabinet minister Mr. Hasan Mahmud has been aiding his brother, Mr. Ershad Mahmud to grab Buddhists’ owned land with coercion and intimidation. Hence, the attention and assistance are immediately needed from the international community to resolve the issue so that Buddhists would not become destitute in their own country. To add more insult to the injury, some frivolous blasphemy accusations are being raised to harass and attack law-abiding Buddhist citizens.

On Friday, the 9th of July, 2020 a group of criminals backed by a local ruling party leader and Police waged an attack on the Gyansharan Buddhist Monastery located in Falaharia, under the Rangunia sub-district in the Division of Chittagong, Bangladesh. The thugs vandalized and desecrated the temple, damaged its structures, and verbally threatened Buddhist monk sharangker Thera. They ordered them to leave Bangladesh or face death. The evidence of their mistreatment of the monks was captured in a video (Buddhist monks being abused in Rangunia).

After the incident, Sharanangkar Thero, the venerable principal of the Gyansharan Monastery, posted a video on the Face book, seeking justice from the Honorable Prime Minister of the country. But, the brother of Minister Hasan Mahmud has bribed the connected governmental people to make sure that the sufferings of the Buddhist community do not reach to the Prime Minister’s office.

They did not stop there. These criminal thugs created a fake Facebook ID and posted slurs against Islam and its prophet to accuse and malign the principal monk of the monastery to color the land grabbing thievery as a communal conflict. In the face of a death threat and anticipating further violence, the venerable monk moved to another monastery. But that did not help to calm the situation. The criminal thugs disconnected the power supply to the monastery and thus forcing the monks, some being in late teens to live in subhuman conditions while death threats were being issued at regular intervals to vacate the monastery.

Under these grim circumstances, on behalf of these persecuted religious minorities of Bangladesh, we would like to request you to highlight and publicize the ongoing harassment of Buddhist monk venerable Sharanangkar Thero and the Buddhist minorities in Bangladesh. We appeal to all of you to draw the attention of the international community to this unjust and ongoing harassment so the international community is fully aware of the pogrom that has been aided and abetted by none other than a Bangladeshi minister (Hasan Mahmud). A Buddhist monk has renounced all his material and earthly desires and he wants nothing but to serve his and other communities. Would we allow another minister’s brother to grab a monastery land to give a green signal to grab more minority-owned properties and land? No justice for the minorities? Would anybody care about the Buddhist plight in Bangladesh when Buddhists have been living there since the Ashokha’s time?

We urge you to convey this message to the Honorable Prime Minister of Bangladesh to make sure that the Prime minister knows what has been going on in Rangunia, Bangladesh.

By so doing, you can prevent another Ramu pogrom (2012) in which 25,000 Islamists gutted multiple Buddhists & Hindu villages. Please help us to combat this religious pogrom and persecution of minorities in Bangladesh and promote religious freedom for the minorities.

Thanks you for your help.

Supporting Documents and Relevant News links:

Supporting Documents in English:

Supporting Documents in Bengali:

১) একই স্ক্রিপ্টে রামু থেকে রাঙ্গুনিয়া! তথ্য মন্ত্রীর ভাই এরশাদ মাহমুদ সমাচার https://youtu.be/VUOO16JM2ao

২) তথ্যমন্ত্রী সাহেব, আমাকে ভয় দেখিয়ে লাভ নেই আমি সংখ্যালঘুদের পাশে আছি, থাকবো