In Bangladesh, especially now, Hefazat-e-Islami Bangladesh, an Islamist organisation based in Chittagong, has recently demanded a ban on the ISKCON.
It became an international issue when Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, who is now in exile, expressed her anxiety on Facebook on Friday, stating threats used at a Hefazat rally in Chattogram recently. Nasreen noted that the audience responded with slogans like “Catch one ISKCON, then slaughter,” which means a direct threat against ISKCON.
Nasreen also dismissed the organization’s statements, observing that Hefazat-e-Islam ‘has demanded terrorism’. They want to wipe out the society’s members, which is ISKCON. ”Truly, is ISKCON is a terrorist organization that it should be banned?” She insisted that ISKCON – an international society for Krishna Consciousness – has never been involved or provoked violence.
ISKCON is present in many countries of the world, and in none of them, there are such problems, but there are in Bangladesh, she said, naming “Islamists and jihadists who can not stand people of other faiths.”
To these new emergent threats, a strong voice was raised from West Bengal’s senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari of ISKCON, stating that it is a ‘concerted attack’. On his page, he posted a video of a procession in Chattogram, where some people chanting, “There is no place for ISKCON in this Bangla,” were reported.
Saying that ISKCON is in significant danger, Adhikari stated that attempts on its life would lead to serious consequences. “If the radicals are thinking of going ahead with the evil intention to attack ISKCON, they will not be able to control the repercussions,” Adhikari warned, adding that persons within and without India who have positive feelings towards the organization will not take lightly for ISKCON to be attacked.
That protracted situation has attracted criticism from different people, asking local and international organizations to intervene.
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