Confusion over Bangladeshi Hindus

Bangladeshi Hindus receive support in Calcutta, India

By the BBC's Waliur Rahman in Dhaka

The Home Minister of Bangladesh, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, says he is unable to confirm reports that large number of Hindus have fled the country into India since the new government came to power last month.

Mr Chowdhury told the BBC that it was alleged that some members of the minority Hindu community were displaced before last month's big Hindu festival, the Durga puja.

But he said the government has no reports that the Hindus were crossing the border into India.

On Wednesday it was reported that Bangladeshi border guards detained 124 Hindus while they were trying to cross the border into India.

It was the first such incident in Bangladesh following reports in the Indian press that Bangladeshi Hindu's were taking refuge in the neighbouring Indian state of West Bengal to escape repression at home.

Border smuggling

Mr Chowdhury said an investigation would have to be carried out to see if these Hindus had been subjected to any kind of atrocity and if they were trying to leave Bangladesh.

New Prime Minister Zia has promised protection for the minorities

He told the BBC that many people on both sides of the borders are involved in smuggling and they often cross the Indo-Bangladesh borders.

He did not, however, say he would claim that there had been no violence on the minority Hindu community after the Bangladesh's parliamentary elections in October.

But he insisted that there was no link between religion and violence.

Mr Chowdhury said some criminals had taken advantage of a political transition in the country with an ulterior political motive and the new government was taking necessary actions against the miscreants.

He also dismissed the allegations that the government was linked to any criminals who were involved in attacks on Bangladesh's religious minorities.

Torture allegations

The leader of the opposition Awami League, Sheikh Hasina, has renewed her allegations that minorities had faced rape, torture, killing and looting, and fled their homes to take shelters in other places after the elections.

Sheikh Hasina's opposition Awami League claims the support of the minorities

She says their only offence was that they voted for her party. She also called for resistance to and retaliation for any further attacks by the Bangladesh National Party and its ally, the Jamaat-e-Islami.

Reports of widespread violence against the Hindu community, destruction of their properties and a few incidents of rape of Hindu women appeared in Bangladesh newspapers following the elections.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's coalition government had admitted that there was some truth to these reports, but dismissed allegations of widespread attacks on the Hindus as exaggerations.