Send a fact-finding team of MPs to Bangladesh to probe attacks on Hindus: VHP to govt

New Delhi, Oct 20 (PTI) The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) demanded on Wednesday that a fact-finding team of Indian parliamentarians should be sent to Bangladesh for a probe into the recent incidents of violence against Hindu minorities in the neighbouring country and its report be made public.

The saffron outfit also appealed to the Union government to "act tough" and exert adequate pressure on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government to ensure that the Hindu minorities in Bangladesh are not discriminated against and persecuted.

"The central government should send a fact-finding team of MPs to Bangladesh to conduct a full investigation into the persecution of the indigenous minority Hindus in Bangladesh and make its report public," a VHP statement quoted the outfit's joint general secretary Surendra Jain as saying.

Jain was addressing a protest, organised by the VHP, near the Bangladesh High Commission in Delhi against the recent attacks on Hindu minorities and vandalisation of temples and Durga puja marquees in Bangladesh.

"The government of India does not stand so strongly against the persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh as it does in similar situations in Afghanistan and Pakistan," the VHP leader said.

"Therefore, the government of India should act tough and exert all appropriate pulls and pressures on the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina so that any sort of persecution and discrimination of the indigenous minority Hindus of her country is proactively disallowed," he added.

Jain and VHP's Delhi unit president Kapil Khanna later called on the Bangladesh High Commissioner and handed a memorandum demanding that safety and security of the Hindu minorities in Bangladesh must be ensured, the saffron outfit said in the statement.