Persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh..., despite valid documents dozens of ISKCON members were prevented from going to India

Dozens of members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) were on Sunday turned back by Bangladesh immigration police at the Benapole border while trying to enter India with valid travel documents, a media report said.

The Daily Star newspaper quoted Benapole immigration police officer-in-charge Imtiaz Ahsanul Kader Bhuiyan as saying, "We consulted the special branch of the police and received instructions from higher authorities not to allow them (to cross the border)."

'There was no specific government permission'

Benapole immigration police officer-in-charge Imtiaz Ahsanul Kader Bhuiyan said the ISKCON members allegedly had valid passports and visas but did not have the specific government permission required for the trip. "They could not proceed without such approval," he said.

An ISKCON member gave the information.

54 members, including devotees from various districts, reached the check post on Saturday night and Sunday morning. However, after waiting for hours for permission, they were told that their trip was not authorized. "We had set out to attend a religious ceremony in India, but the immigration officials stopped us citing lack of government permission," said Saurabh Tapandar Cheli, an ISKCON member.

Indian youth attacked

Amid reports of attacks on Hindus and other minorities in neighboring Bangladesh, a Kolkata youth has claimed that unidentified people in Dhaka thrashed him when they found out that he was an Indian Hindu. Sayan Ghosh, 22, a resident of the Belgharia area on the northern outskirts of the West Bengal capital, had gone to Bangladesh on November 23 and was staying with a friend. There the family treated him like their own son.

Ghosh told PTI on Sunday, "However, on the late evening of November 26, when my friend and I went out for a walk, a group of four youths surrounded me at a distance of about 70 metres from my friend's house. They asked me for my identity. When I told them that I am from India and a Hindu, they started kicking and punching me and even attacked my friend who tried to save me.'