The Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance has demanded a three-day holiday for the Durga Puja, instead of one-day, for celebrating the festival ‘smoothly’.
Secretary General of the Alliance Gobinda Chandra Pramanik raised the demand at a press briefing in Dhaka on Saturday. He said though the Constitution ensures equal rights, Hindus get only one-day holiday during their biggest festival, but Muslims enjoy three-day holiday during Eid. “We’re deprived of enjoying the festival because of one-day holiday,” he said. The Alliance organised the briefing to protest what they said ‘false, misleading and defamatory’ write up by Prof Muntassir Mamoon.
Pramanik said Mamoon had alleged in a ‘Janakantha’ Bengali daily article that he was the religious affairs secretary of the Jamaat-e-Islami that opposed Bangladesh’s independence. He threatened legal action unless Mamoon along with the editor and publisher of the newspaper apologised for the article. The secretary general also referred to attacks on minorities in Bangladesh and demanded 60 reserved seats in Parliament for Hindus to give them a moral boost.
He also demanded a separate ministry for minority affairs in Bangladesh.
