Indigenous student-leaders and young people rallied in Bangladesh this week to protest what they say is the government’s failure to protect indigenous peoples and religious minorities.

The human chain protest outside the National Museum in the capital, Dhaka, on August 18, followed an incident in which a mob attacked a Christian village after the body of a Muslim businessman, 40-year-old Belal Hossain, was discovered in there, leading to a mob attack and looting.

The village of Gazarikona is in the northern part of Bangladesh, a majority-Muslim country of roughly 180 million people.

“A body was found and the entire village was attacked based on it, and the villagers were detained without any evidence. This cannot be the behavior of a civilized country,”  Garo indigenous leader Alik Mree told Crux Now.

Mree claimed the body had been moved to the village post mortem and used as a pretext for violent religious persecution.

“This body was brought from somewhere else and left in the indigenous village and a planned attack was carried out, a planned loot was carried out,” Mree said, adding that “religion was used for this attack.”

“This state has failed to provide security to indigenous and religious minorities,” he said.

The local parish priest, Father Lawrence Rebeiro, called the incident shameful and cruel, and said the pretext for the violence was incredible.

“The indigenous are already neglected,” he told Crux Now, “it is unbelievable that they would kill a Muslim person.”

The priest said that the attack on the village and the looting of rice, paddy, money, livestock, and other valuables worth about $32,000.

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“A general diary has been filed with the police station seeking security on behalf of the villagers. The Church has provided food and other essential items to the affected people.” said Father Rebeiro.

According to the information provided by the police, the deceased went missing on August 4, and his body was found in the indigenous village on August 12. After the incident, law enforcement agencies arrested 19 indigenous people. Of them, 14 were later released and five were kept in custody.

The protest rally demanded that a judicial investigation committee be formed immediately into the communal attacks, and called for the true culprits to be identified, brought to justice swiftly, and given exemplary punishment.

The rally organizers also called on the government to determine the exact amount of damage and speedily provide compensation and restoration of goods.

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