Leader of Religious Forum Attacked in Bangladesh
25 November 2015
NEW DELHI — Two men wielding kitchen knives attacked a religious forum leader in Bangladesh on Tuesday, police said.
Local police chief Nazim Uddin said Alok Sen was assaulted outside his home in the district of Faridpur. He shouted for help as the men slashed him and his wife came out, prompting the unidentified attackers to flee, Uddin said.
Sen, a Hindu, is secretary general in Faridpur of the Hindu-Bouddho-Christian Unity Parishad, a platform of Hindus, Buddhists and Christians in the South Asian country. Members are generally considered to be supporters of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s political party.
Sen told reporters at the hospital where he is being treated that he had no known enemies and no idea who attacked him.
A day earlier, Faridpur residents buried Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, one of two men hanged over the weekend after being of war crimes during the country’s 1971 independence war.
The executions, carried out despite concerns that the legal proceedings were flawed, sparked strong protests from the country’s main Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, as well as criticism from Pakistan and the United States.
Mujahid had been the general secretary of Jamaat-e-Islami. Also executed was Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury.
US lawmakers overseeing foreign policy described the war crimes tribunal as “very flawed” and a means of political retribution. Bangladesh authorities say standards were maintained in the legal proceedings.
