DHAKA: Young Bangladeshi professional Tanushree Shaha is outraged by recent mob violence against her family in the chaotic wake of premier Sheikh Hasina’s ouster from power, fearful that her fellow Hindus could face more reprisals.
Those fears, however justified, are being turbocharged by a wave of false rumors of other, deadly attacks being spread online and amplified by the media in Hindu-majority neighbor India.
Hindus are the largest minority faith in mostly Muslim Bangladesh and are considered a steadfast support base for Hasina’s party, the Awami League.
After Hasina’s abrupt resignation and flight abroad on Monday brought an end to her 15 years of autocratic rule, numerous Hindu families came into the crosshairs of their neighbors.
“A group of people vandalized my uncle’s shop,” said Shaha, the 31-year-old manager of a handicrafts business in the capital Dhaka.
She told AFP the mob had stolen his cash till and emptied the shelves of his grocery store further north in the city of Mymensingh.
They then beat him and demanded more money to prevent future attacks.
Shaha was standing with more than 1,000 Hindus at a boisterous rally near Dhaka University, where the student protests that toppled Hasina began last month.
The group had gathered to demand the country’s new interim government, led by Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, urgently protect members of their faith from harm.
But Shaha said the animosity toward Hindus ran deeper than the national upheaval of the past month.
“Whenever a government falls or a problem arises, we are victimized by opportunists,” she said.
Hindus account for around eight percent of Bangladesh’s 170 million people.
That is a sharp fall from 1947, when the haphazard partition of India and Pakistan on religious lines at the end of British colonial rule sparked widespread violence.
Many more fled in 1971 during Bangladesh’s devastating liberation war against Pakistan.
Up to three million people died in the conflict and Hindus, seen as supporters of independence, were disproportionate victims.
Over the past week, religious rights groups said they documented more than 200 incidents of attacks on minority communities, a figure that also includes Christians and Buddhists.
“The incidents include attacking homes, vandalising shops and places of worship,” rights activist Rana Dasgupta said in a video statement. “Women were abused too.”
Hundreds of other Hindus arrived at the Indian border after Hasina’s fall, asking to cross.
Nearly all of these attacks took place in the chaotic hours after the premier fled and the police force, loathed for firing on anti-Hasina demonstrators, went on strike.
The young students who ousted her and other members of the public have stepped into the law-and-order vacuum.
They have organized nightly neighborhood watch groups, and posted volunteers outside temples to stop looting.
“We are staying awake at night to catch the robbers,” Mohammed Miad, patrolling one busy Dhaka neighborhood after midnight on Sunday, told AFP.
Student protest leaders met with the Hindu community on Friday to hear their concerns and pass them on to Yunus’s administration.
Yunus himself said on Saturday that there was no room for discrimination in the country.
“Our responsibility is to build a new Bangladesh,” he told reporters.
“Don’t differentiate by religion.”
Anxieties are being further inflamed by the spread of false reports of attacks online suggesting the violence against Hindus is orders of magnitude worse than reality.
Many originated from social media users in India, whose Prime Minister Narendra Modi is an unabashed champion of the Hindu faith and was a staunch backer of Hasina’s rule.
One widely shared X post written in Hindi, India’s most common language, falsely claimed that over 500 Hindus had been killed, hundreds of Hindu women raped and dozens of temples burned to the ground.
Many of the more outlandish claims had also been picked up and reported as fact by Indian media, International Crisis Group’s Thomas Kean told AFP.
“Their reporting and analysis reflects a worldview that is quite out of touch with the reality on the ground,” he said.
Hasina took refuge in India after her fall, heightening animosity toward the regional giant among Bangladeshis.
But whether this provoked a spike in violence against practitioners of India’s majority faith in Bangladesh is far from certain.
Many attacks appear to have been petty and opportunistic robberies against a largely affluent but vulnerable minority.
Kean said that of the more than 450 people killed in the unrest around Hasina’s ouster, there was no indication that Hindus had been disproportionate victims.
Yet even if the worst reports of attacks against Hindus were fabricated, the pervasive sense of fear and anger within the community has persisted.
“After the fall of the dictatorship, we were supposed to hold a victory rally,” student Moumita Adhikari, 20, told AFP at the Hindu protest near Dhaka University.
“So why are we protesting here?” she asked. “Aren’t we citizens of this country?“
Attacks, online misinformation frighten Bangladeshi Hindus in wake of Hasina’s ouster
https://arab.news/vrska
Attacks, online misinformation frighten Bangladeshi Hindus in wake of Hasina’s ouster
- Hindus are the largest minority faith in mostly Muslim Bangladesh and are considered a steadfast support base for Hasina’s party
- After Hasina’s abrupt resignation and flight abroad on Aug. 5, numerous Hindu families came into the crosshairs of their neighbors
German court to rule on claim against Berlin over US strikes in Yemen
- “The German government must put an end to the use of this base — otherwise the government is making itself complicit in the deaths of innocent civilians,” said Andreas Schueller, program director for international crimes at the NGO
BERLIN: Germany’s constitutional court will rule Tuesday in a years-long legal saga over whether Berlin can be held partly responsible for US drone attacks on Yemen due to signals sent through the Ramstein air base.
The case is being brought by two Yemeni men, Ahmed and Khalid bin Ali Jaber, who lost members of their family in a US drone strike on the village of Khashamir in 2012.
The survivors say they were there for a wedding of a male family member and eating dinner when they heard the buzz of a drone and then the boom of missile attacks that claimed multiple lives.
A ruling in favor of the plaintiffs could have groundbreaking implications regarding Germany’s responsibility toward third countries in international conflicts.
The two men, supported by the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), argue that Germany is partly responsible for the attack because the strike was aided by signals relayed from the Ramstein base in the west of the country.
“Without the data that flows through Ramstein, the US cannot fly its combat drones in Yemen,” according to the ECCHR.
“The German government must put an end to the use of this base — otherwise the government is making itself complicit in the deaths of innocent civilians,” said Andreas Schueller, program director for international crimes at the NGO.
The plaintiffs first took their case to court in 2014, arguing that Germany had a responsibility to ensure the US military was respecting international law in using the Ramstein base.
The case was initially thrown out, before the higher administrative court in Muenster ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in 2019.
However, the government appealed and a higher court overturned the decision in 2020, arguing that German diplomatic efforts were enough to ensure Washington was adhering to international law.
In a hearing scheduled for 0800 GMT, the constitutional court must now decide what conditions are necessary for those affected abroad to sue the German state for the protection of their right to life, according to the ECCHR.
This includes whether data transmission alone is enough of a connection to German territory for Germany to be held responsible.
Ahead of the latest proceedings, which opened in December 2024, the German defense ministry said Berlin was “in an ongoing and trusting dialogue” with the United States about its activities at Ramstein.
The government has repeatedly obtained assurances that drones are not launched, controlled or commanded from Germany and that US forces are acting lawfully, the ministry said.
Japan warns of China’s military moves as biggest strategic challenge
- China’s increasing dispatch of aircraft carriers in the Pacific underscores the country’s attempt to advance its sea power in distant waters, the report said
TOKYO: Japan raised strong caution against China’s rapid acceleration of military activity in extensive areas from around its southwestern coasts to the Pacific, describing the moves as the biggest strategic challenge.
China’s growing joint operations with Russia also pose serious security concerns to Japan, along with increasing tension around Taiwan and threats coming from North Korea, the Defense Ministry said in an annual military report submitted to Cabinet on Tuesday.
“The international society is in a new crisis era as it faces the biggest challenges since the end of World War II,” the report said, citing significant changes to the global power balance while raising concern about an escalation of the China-US rivalry.
The security threats are concentrated in the Indo-Pacific, where Japan is located, and could get worse in the future, report says.
Japan has accelerated its military buildup on southwestern islands in recent years, preparing to deploy long-distance cruise missiles, as it worries about a conflict in Taiwan, which China claims as its territory to be annexed by force if necessary. Taiwan launched 10-day annual live-fire military exercises last week intended to guard against Chinese threats to invade. Japan tested a short-range, surface-to-ship missile at home earlier last month.
Chinese warships’ advance into the Pacific has steadily increased, with the frequency of their passage off southwestern Japan tripling in the past three years, including in waters between Taiwan and its neighboring Japanese island of Yonaguni, the 534-page report said.
The report comes days after Japan demanded China stop flying its fighter jets abnormally close to Japanese intelligence-gathering aircraft, which it said was happening repeatedly and could cause a collision. Beijing, in return, accused Japan of flying near Chinese airspace for spying purposes.
Two earlier close encounters in June occurred over the Pacific Ocean, where Japan spotted two Chinese aircraft carriers operating together for the first time.
China’s increasing dispatch of aircraft carriers in the Pacific underscores the country’s attempt to advance its sea power in distant waters, the report said. It said China’s frequent dispatch of bombers for long distance flights in the Pacific by more sophisticated flight routes and fleet organization is seen as Beijing’s attempt to show off its presence around Japan and to further advance its operational capability.
The Defense Ministry noted two cases last year — a Chinese warplane’s brief violation of Japanese airspace over waters off islands near Nagasaki and an aircraft carrier’s entry into a zone just outside of Japan’s territorial waters further southwest in the Nansei island chain.
With US President Donald Trump focusing on the strengthening of the US economy and security, Japan and other US allies face expectations to play a greater role for peace and stability in the region, the report said.
North Korea poses “an increasingly serious and imminent threat” for Japan’s security, the report said, noting the North’s development of missiles carrying nuclear warheads into the Japanese territory and solid-fuel ICBM that can reach the US mainland.
Russia maintains active military operations around Japan and violated the country’s airspace in September, the report added, saying its increasing strategic cooperation with China has posed “strong concern” for Japan’s security.
Japan’s ruling coalition seen losing upper house majority, Asahi reports
- Asahi said its report was based on phone and Internet surveys conducted on voters July 13-14, as well as research nationwide by the newspaper’s journalists
TOKYO: Japan’s ruling coalition will likely lose its majority in the upper house election on July 20, the Asahi newspaper said on Tuesday, heightening the risk of political instability at a time the country struggles to strike a trade deal with the US
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its coalition partner Komeito will likely struggle to retain the 50 seats needed to defend its majority in the upper house of parliament, the Asahi said.
The LDP will likely win just around 35 seats, the paper said. The LDP currently hold 52 seats.
Asahi said its report was based on phone and Internet surveys conducted on voters July 13-14, as well as research nationwide by the newspaper’s journalists.
Ishiba’s administration has seen approval ratings slide as the rising cost of living, including the soaring price of Japan’s staple rice, hit households.
What to know about the Grand Canyon as wildfires burn, claiming a historic lodge
Nearly 5 million people visited the Grand Canyon last year, from day trippers and campers to people sleeping overnight in historic lodges and cabins.
This year will be different, at least for one portion of the park. A wildfire has torn through a historic lodge and ended the season for the canyon’s North Rim, a place where visitors could find less bustle in one of the country’s most iconic national parks.
As firefighters continue to fight the blaze, here’s what to know about Grand Canyon National Park.
Bigger than Rhode Island
The Colorado River cuts through Grand Canyon National Park for about 278 miles , pushing across northwestern Arizona. The eastern boundary is near the state’s northern border with Utah, while the western edge is near Nevada.
Grand Canyon National Park is about 1,900 square miles, according to the National Park Service, which makes it bigger than Rhode Island.
The park is unique because of its canyon walls, which boast horizontal layers of red, orange and purple rock. The average depth of the iconic formation is about a mile , while the average width is about 10 miles .
“Four Empire State Buildings stacked one atop the other would not reach the rim,” Lance Newman wrote in the introduction to the 2011 book, “The Grand Canyon Reader.”
The north and south rims
Within the park are the north and south rims, which are the primary travel destinations because of their accessibility.
The North Rim receives 10 percent of park visitors and is known for more quiet and solitude, according to the park service. It’s open from mid-May to mid-October because of the snow. But the wildfires have closed it for the rest of the season, destroying a historic lodge and dozens of cabins.
The South Rim is open all year. It’s more bustling and boasts a historic district, which dates to when the first steam-powered train arrived in 1901.
A car trip between the rims takes five hours, according to the park service. That’s because there’s only one way across the Colorado River by vehicle, and its 137 miles from the South Rim Village.
Hiking between rims is a shorter distance, 21 miles , though by no means easy. It includes crossing the river on a narrow foot bridge 70 feet above the water.
Unexplored by Europeans for 235 years
The Grand Canyon was formed with the shifting of tectonic plates, which lifted layers of rock into a high and relatively flat plateau, according to the park service. About 5 million to 6 million years ago, the Colorado River began to carve its way downward, slowly deepening and widening the gorge.
The oldest human artifacts in the area date to about 12,000 years ago, when small bands of people hunted bison, the park service said. There were gradual shifts to agriculture, the building of pueblos and the development of trade routes. Today, 11 tribes have historic connections to the canyon, including the Hopi and the Diné .
The Spanish were the first Europeans to the see the Grand Canyon in 1540, according to the park service. Francisco Vázquez de Coronado and his Spanish army were searching for fabled cities of gold.
“The Hopi were able to fool the Spaniards into thinking that the area was an impenetrable wasteland and was not navigable anyway,” the park service wrote on its website, adding that the canyon “was left unexplored by Europeans for 235 years.”
In the late 1850s, an Army lieutenant explored the Grand Canyon in search of a viable trade route, the park service said. Joseph Christmas Ives described it as “altogether valueless” and predicted it “shall be forever unvisited.”
The Grand Canyon began to draw much more interest after expeditions in 1869 and 1871 by geologist John Wesley Powell.
Powell described rock layers in the canyon’s towering walls: “creamy orange above, then bright vermilion, and below, purple and chocolate beds, with green and yellow sands.”
‘You cannot improve on it’
As the years went on, more explorers arrived by boat, on foot and on horseback, often with the help of Native American guides. Wealthy travelers came by stagecoach from Flagstaff to the South Rim in the 1880s. After the arrival of trains, the automobile became the more popular mode of travel in the 1930s.
Early entrepreneurs charged $1 to hike down the Bright Angel Trail used by the Havasupai people whose current-day reservation lies in the depths of the Grand Canyon.
President Woodrow Wilson signed legislation to create the park in 1919 but Teddy Roosevelt is credited for its early preservation as a game reserve and a national monument.
He famously said: “Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it.”
Thomas Massie, GOP congressman who broke with Trump, reports strong fundraising
WASHINGTON: US Rep. Thomas Massie has stockpiled more than $1.7 million for his re-election bid as the Kentucky Republican gears up to face President Donald Trump’s vaunted political operation, Massie’s campaign announced Monday.
Massie was one of two House Republicans to vote against Trump’s massive tax bill and he said Trump lacked authority to bomb nuclear sites in Iran without congressional approval.
Trump aides launched a super PAC devoted to defeating Massie in his 2026 primary, the first concerted effort by the president’s team to unseat a sitting member of Congress.
Trump’s challenge to Massie sent a clear signal to other Republicans that they cross the president at their peril. But Massie’s formidable fundraising will help him fight back. His sprawling district covers three television markets, making it an expensive place to campaign.
Massie raised just over $584,000 between April and June, bringing his total fundraising since the last election above $1 million, his campaign reported. The $1.7 million in his campaign bank account includes money left over from his successful 2024 re-election campaign.
The new PAC, Kentucky MAGA, will be run by two of Trump’s top political lieutenants, his former co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita and longtime pollster Tony Fabrizio. They have not yet announced a challenger they will support but hope to unify Massie’s Republican critics behind one person to avoid splitting the anti-Massie vote.
Elon Musk, a billionaire and one-time Trump ally, suggested he’ll support Massie.
