Dhaka: Bangladesh is set to make mandatory the registration of Hindu marriages to ensure rights of the followers of the faith by bringing in a law on the lines of India, law minister Shafique Ahmed said here on Saturday.

"Registration of Hindu marriages is being made mandatory ," he told a seminar on the rights of Hindu community with regard to marriage registration.

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He said stakeholders` opinions regarding the proposed law had already been elicited and the matter was also discussed in the parliamentary standing committee on the law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry.
Ahmed assured that the government would not formulate any law that would hurt religious sentiment. Citizens for Enactment of the Hindu Marriage Law organized the seminar to review a draft on the proposed registration law following the example of a related legislation in neighbouring India.

Organizers said 10 women and rights groups had prepared the draft on the basis of inputs provided by 40 other organizations at grassroots.

The minister said despite the in-principle decision in favour of enacting the Hindu registration law immediately following Indian example, the follow up legislations for separation and hereditary laws could take a longer period. Bangladesh last year enacted the Vested Property Law 2001, to allow the return of property of the minority community , confiscated during the 1965 Indo-Pak war.
PTI