6 US Congressmen’s letter to Biden: Bangladesh Buddhist Federation calls claims about minority communities’ state ‘baseless and fabricated’

Bangladesh Buddhist Federation has rejected the claims made in a letter from six US congressmen to President Biden — raising concerns about the state of the minority communities in the country under the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. 

Calling the assertions made in the letter "baseless and fabricated," a press release from Bangladesh Buddhist Federation, dated 9 June, reads: "The letter addressed to US President Joseph Biden by six members of Congress of the United States dated 17 May, 2023 has drawn our attention. Paragraph 3 of page 1 of the said letter refers to the alleged reduction of the number of religious minorities in Bangladesh during the regime of Sheikh Hasina. Although the letter did not specially mention the minority Buddhist community of Bangladesh, yet we have reasons to refuse the allegations mentioned in the letter."

Citing data from the Bangladesh Census of 2011 and 2022, the organization highlighted that the size of the Buddhist population remained stable at approximately 0.61% in both years. They emphasised that there has been no significant decline in their numbers during the mentioned period.

"We the Buddhist community of Bangladesh are cohabiting in peace and harmony with the people of other faiths during Bangabandu's government and also since the present government under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina," the press release added.

They acknowledged that while there have been isolated incidents of communal disharmony, the government has promptly and firmly responded, taking strict actions to address such issues.

"There were some random incidents of communal disharmony; but our benign government undertook prompt and strict actions. We affirm that we are the utmost beneficiaries of the Bangladesh Government's 'zero tolerance' policy towards terrorism and violent extremism targeting communal harmony," it concluded.