The minority Hindu population in Bangladesh became the target of violence shortly after Sheikh Hasina abruptly resigned as prime minister and left the nation in a military plane bound for India.According to the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC), a lot of Hindu houses and businesses suffered vandalism between Monday and Tuesday, and many temples sustained damage. Additionally, there were reports of Hindu temples being vandalised; protesters specifically targeted an ISKCON and a Kali temple in Bangladesh.
Following Hasina's removal, attacks on Hindus brought attention to the religious makeup of the nation (Hindus account for approximately 8% of Bangladesh's population) as well as General Hussain Muhammad Ershad, who established Islam as the official religion of Bangladesh.
Notably, Sheikh Hasina reaffirmed Islam as the official state religion while also restoring secularism as one of the foundational tenets of Bangladesh's constitution in 2011. In light of the current political and social unrest plaguing this Southeast Asian nation, let us examine General Hussain Muhammad Ershad in more detail.
General Hussain Mohammad Ershad, who passed away in July 2019, seized power in Bangladesh in a bloodless coup in 1982, just 11 years after the country's independence from Pakistan, and ruled it for the majority of the 1980s and early 1990s.Remarkably, he is the only person in Bangladeshi political slang who is called “the dictator,” despite the fact that since the 1950s, the nation has been led by leaders with differing degrees of autocratic ambitions.
It's intriguing to note, though, that the army chief was born and raised in India. Under British rule at the time, he was born on February 1, 1930, in the Coochbehar district of West Bengal state in India. When British colonial rule over the Indian subcontinent ended in 1948, his parents, Mokbul Hossain and Mazida Khatun, moved to what is now Bangladesh.
Ershad graduated in 1950 from the University of Dhaka after attending Carmichael College in Rangpur. He attended the Command and Staff College in Quetta, Pakistan, and the Officer Training School in Kohat before being appointed a commanding officer in the East Bengal Regiment in 1969. He was detained during the 1971 war for his nation's independence from Pakistan, though, and returned to Bangladesh in 1973.
When Ershad was named deputy chief of staff by army chief of staff General Ziaur Rahman in 1975, he rose to prominence in Bangladesh. Ershad was a skilled speechwriter in Bengali and quickly established himself as one of Rahman's closest political and military advisors. In 1978, he was elevated to the position of lieutenant general and chief of staff.
As president of Bangladesh in 1988, General Ershad changed the country's constitution to officially recognise Islam. Bangladesh had up until that point been a secular country, with secularism even listed as one of the constitution's tenets.
Many observe that Ershad's politically motivated action aligned with the views of General Ziaur Rahman, his mentor. Ershad carried on the process of Islamizing the constitution, which Rahman had started in the 1970s.
Ershad proposed the contentious Fifth and Eighth Amendments, respectively, which effectively nullified the nation's pro-secular founding ideals.
Mokbul Hussain, the father of Irshad, practiced law. He served as the Maharaja of Cooch Behar's minister at the time. In 1948, during the partition, he relocated to East Bengal. In 1952, Irshad graduated from the Officers Training School in Kohat with a commission in the Pakistani Army.
