Canada: Hindus protest outside Bangladeshi consulate in Toronto to highlight plight of community in South Asian nation

The protest occurred at a time when Bangladesh is witnessing a spike in atrocities committed against minorities, specially Hindus, following the collapse of the former PM Sheikh Hasina-led regime and the current rule of the Interim government.

During the protest amid chilling cold, Canadian Hindus were heard shouting slogans and hiding banners in their hands which read messages like “Shame Shame Bangladesh”, “Mohammed Younus A Murderer”, “Hindu Lives Matter and ‘Stop Hindu Genocide.’

A protester told ANI: " What’s happening is in Bangladesh they’re genociding Hindus, they’re assaulting our women, they’re raping our children, they’re doing whatever they can because the Hindus are a minority and they’re trying to overrun the Hindu minorities. That’s what they have done in Pakistan, they have done in Afghanistan, now they’re trying to do in Bangladesh. We are here to support our brothers and sisters all over the world to unite and show our concern.”

Another protester told the Indian news agency, “Today is also World Human Rights Day. And we as a united Canadian Hindus have been gathered here as a protest in front of the Bangladesh Council in Toronto, Canada. We are protesting because what we have seen, what’s going on in Bangladesh since August 3, 2024."

A Bangladeshi-origin Hindu woman said if steps are not taken then the community will vanish from her nation just like it did in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"If we are not saved now, we will be vanished from Bangladesh as well. This was our land. Our 14th generation was born over there. People of Bangladesh need to stay back in their own homeland. They are not invaders. They are not Britishers. They are the son of the soil of that land," she said.