The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council has called on the government to take sincere and meaningful steps to implement the eight-point demands of the country’s minority communities, including the enactment of a Minority Protection Act.
The organisation also urged people to come together and strengthen the human rights movement against religious discrimination.
The leaders of the Unity Council made the call at a discussion meeting held at the organisation’s central office on Wednesday. The meeting was organised to mark the 38th founding anniversary of the Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council.
The information was later disclosed in a press release issued by Manindra Kumar Nath, acting general secretary of the organisation.
At the discussion, leaders of the Unity Council said the democratic and secular Constitution of 1972, achieved through the Liberation War, is now facing challenges on multiple fronts. Religious and ethnic minorities are increasingly being treated as second-class citizens and are subjected to various forms of discrimination and persecution. The leaders called on everyone to come forward to end such discrimination.
Among the eight-point demands of the Unity Council are the enactment of a Minority Protection Act, the formation of a National Minority Commission and a Ministry for Minorities, ensuring proportional representation of minorities in Parliament based on population, enactment of a law on debottor (religious endowment) property”, and proper implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord.
