HRCBM-DFW

The Commission placed Bangladesh on its Watch List in 2005 due to a number of concerns:

• Islamist radicalism and violence, as well as the then government’s initial downplaying of the problem;
• the anti-minority, particularly anti-Hindu, violence that occurred following the last general election in 2001 and the failure to investigate and hold perpetrators to account for that violence and other instances of violence against members of religious minorities;
• the inadequate police response to the sometimes violent campaign against the minority Ahmadi religious community;
• discrimination against members of religious minority communities in public employment and access to government services; and
• the repeated and sometimes fatal attacks against journalists, authors, and academics for debating sensitive social or political issues or otherwise expressing opinions deemed by militants to be offensive to Islam.