'Unfortunate Persecution': Gabbard Says Trump 'Concerned' Over Atrocities Against Bangladeshi Hindus
Tulsi Gabbard said the Trump administration is committed to defeating "Islamist terrorism" globally.
The US Director Of National Intelligence (DNI) said that the atrocities faced by the Bengali Hindus and Christians, Buddhists and other minority communities is an area of major concern for US President Donald Trump.
She said her boss remains focused and committed to defeating “Islamist terrorism" globally.
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“The longtime unfortunate persecution, killing, and abuse of religious minorities like Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, and others has been a major area of concern for the US government and President Trump and his administration," Gabbard said while speaking to broadcaster NDTV.
The Trump administration is expected to soon begin talks with the interim government led by Bangladesh interim government’s chief advisor Muhammad Yunus over the rise of Islamic extremism in the country.
Ex-premier Sheikh Hasina, ousted in last August’s revolution, took a tough stance against Islamist movements during her 15-year tenure.
Since her exit, the hardline religiously fuelled activism that Hasina’s government had driven underground has resurfaced.
Yunus condemned the recent “horrific acts of violence" against women committed by the Islamist groups.
He, however, has been accused of failing to protect minorities from the attacks of the Islamist hardliners.
Yunus’s administration has struggled to restore law and order, with many police officers refusing to return to work and the army brought in to help.
Recently, the Bangladeshi police on fired tear gas to disperse a rally by banned Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir after pledging to take a zero tolerance approach to the hardline outfit.
Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international fundamentalist Sunni group that calls for the establishment of a caliphate, and has been banned in Bangladesh since 2009.
It has begun resurfacing publicly in the South Asian nation since last year’s ouster of ex-premier Sheikh Hasina, whose autocratic government clamped down on Islamist groups.
Around 1,000 members of the group gathered outside Bangladesh’s largest mosque on Friday, the Baitul Mukarram in the capital Dhaka, but were stopped by police.
Yunus, the Nobel Prize-winning microfinance pioneer who heads the caretaker government, has said that general elections will take place in late 2025 or early 2026.
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