AN INCREASE in the number of incidents of sectarian violence suggests a worrying failure of the government in containing such violence and of the state in ensuring the safety and security of people belonging to religious and ethnic minorities. An absence of adequate and effective steps to end sectarian violence and of programmes to promote religious and cultural harmony has, as rights activists said at a meeting organised by the Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh on Sunday, resulted in an escalation of sectarian violence and disrupted religious harmony. At least 1,678 attacks on people and places of worship belonging to religious minorities took place in 2013–2021, keeping to different reports. Rights activists also rightly point out that most of the recent incidents of sectarian violence, though apparently sectarian in nature, are political and the inaction of the government in bringing the perpetrators to book has created a dangerous culture of impunity. The involvement of people belonging to the ruling Awami League in almost all such incidents of violence — the recent example being the Narail incident where at least four out of the nine arrested were associated with the ruling party — clearly shows that political and personal interests have been at play in such incidents.

When the recent incident of violence in Narail, like the ones in Ramu, Cox’s Bazar, Sathia, Pabna, Fatikchari, Chattogram, Nasirnagar, Brahmanbaria, Sunamganj and some other places, suggests a growing intolerance that has come to worryingly grip many, it also shows inefficiency of the law enforcement agencies in staving off and containing such acts of violence. In the past year, a number of sectarian attacks shook the country and all of them centred on Facebook posts. In most cases, it was later found that the ‘demeaning’ posts were posted from fake accounts or after the accounts had been hacked and that the persons alleged to have posted the demeaning posts or pictures did not even have a Facebook account. The police detained many perpetrators after each of the incidents, but more needs to be done. Trials in most of these cases have remained worryingly pending, even though trials are highly required, especially for the security and safety of the religious minorities. When law enforcers need to play the biggest role and remain watchful to stave off any repetition of such sectarian attacks, religious clerks and preachers of all religious communities, especially the majority Muslim community, need to be proactive too.

Religious intolerance is a vicious thing that travels fast and begets fanaticism in different forms. The law enforcers must, therefore, remain alert and engage people from the majority community to put an end to sectarian violence. The government must bring to book the people who instigated and participated in past attacks. The ministry of religious affairs and the ministry of cultural affairs must also have a progressive agenda and take programmes to facilitate religious harmony.