A minority leader’s plea to Donald Trump to help Hindus, Buddhists and Christians in Bangladesh, has met with a strong reaction from Dhaka.
A minority leader’s plea to Donald Trump to help Hindus, Buddhists and Christians in Bangladesh, has met with a strong reaction from Dhaka.
While meeting Donald Trump on Wednesday as part of a group of persecuted minorities, a Bangladeshi Hindu leader urged Trump to protect minorities in the country from Islamist fundamentalists.
The state minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam strongly condemned the allegations and was quoted saying by Bangaldeshi media: “I answered various questions from various countries and NGOs, both at home and abroad, related to human rights several times, in the full house of the UN human rights agency. But I never saw anyone asking questions with the allegations that Priya Saha made”
Watch: Minority leader from Bangladesh asks US President @realDonaldTrump to protect minorities from Islamic fundamentalists, says 37 million 'Hindus, Christians and Buddhists have disappeared' pic.twitter.com/5FtDtiY0hu
— DNA (@dna) July 20, 2019
1. 'Complete lie'
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Shahriar said the government would listen to her allegations and look into them. He also said that Trump knew the allegations were ‘false’.
He added: “I've watched the video conversation between Priya Saha and Trump. It's a complete lie.”
He claimed Bangladesh was a shining example of religious harmony.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said Priya Saha’s allegations had ‘no basis’.
2. 37 million minorities have disappeared
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Priya Saha, who met Trump along with other victims of religious prosecution including Nobel Laureate Nadia Murad, told the POTUS that 37 million Hindus, Buddhists and Christians in the ‘country had disappeared’
In a video clip that has gone viral, a leader of a minority group from Bangladesh called Bangladesh Hindu-Buddha-Christian Oikya Parishad told Trump: “Sir, I'm from Bangladesh... 37 million Hindus, Buddhists and Christians are disappeared. Please help us – for the Bangladeshi people. We want to stay in our country.”
3. Please help us
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Saha added: “My request is, please help us, we don't want to leave our country, just help us stay. I've lost my home, they've burned my home, they (have) taken away my land, but no judgement (has) yet (been) taken please, please...”
Trump then asks her who took her ‘land and home’ to which she replied that it was Muslim fundamentalist groups.
At one stage, Trump even holds her hand as she says that the Muslim fundamentalists
Trump was heard asking her: “Who took the land and home?” In reply, she said the Muslim fundamentalist groups were always being protected by the government.
