Dhaka, June 27: Minority population particularly the number of Hindus in Bangladesh has witnessed a two-third decrease from 33 per cent to 11 per cent at present in a span of 90 years, an academic has claimed. Hindus who constitute more than ninety percent of the religious minorities either fled the country during communal riots, while a large number of them left their ancestral homes due to inhospitable environment or crossed over to India, Ajoy Roy, a professor in Dhaka University, said at a seminar "Human Rights in Bangladesh in the Context of Minorities and Communalism".

He said the percentage of minorities must have dwindled further after BNP government came to power and Bangladesh witnessing "widespread atrocities against minority population".

Main opposition Awami League has already claimed that 1,20,122 minority families either underwent repression or evicted from their homes in the last 21 months of the alliance government which has "fundamentalist" Jamaat-e-Islami as a partner.

Bureau Report