On Saturday, the leaders of the Ahmadi community in Bangladesh reportedly accused radical Islamists of digging up the grave of a newborn baby and dumping the corpse on the roadside. The infant was buried in a government-owned cemetery on Thursday in Ghatura in Sadar Upazila in the Brahmanbaria district of Bangladesh.
As per the reports, the grave was dug within hours of being buried and the deceased was exhumed by the fanatics. The incident has sparked a debate on social media as Muslims consider ‘Ahmadiyas’ as inferior infidels (Kaafirs). Leaders from the Ahmadi community staged a protest and demanded strict punishment for the perpetrators.
Reportedly, the toddler was born at 5:30 am on Thursday to one Swapna Begum at Christian Memorial Hospital in Brahmanbaria town. However, the girl was kept in an incubator owing to complications. She died on the same day at 7 am and was buried in a government-owned graveyard. However, maulvis (Islamic clerics) were miffed with the decision. Reports state that some ‘fanatics’, who had objected to the ‘infidel’ child being buried in a Muslim graveyard, later dug the grave and dumped it by a roadside.
Body of infant re-buried at another cemetery
On being informed, the cops rushed to the scene and the family members later buried the infant’s exhumed body at Kandirpara village, around 16 kilometres away, at 11:30 am on the same day. The re-burial was reportedly facilitated by a local councillor Azad Hazari. “The dead body was buried at the graveyard of the Ahmadiyya community at Kandirpara village after we spoke with the locals,” Mohammed Salim, Officer-in-Charge of Brahmanbaria Sadar police station. However, he did not answer when asked by reporters whether action will be taken against the perpetrators.
Burning Ahmadis in a Muslim graveyard against Sharia, claims Maulvi
According to Saiful Islam, the father of the deceased, he was unable to recognise the anti-Ahmadiyas who had dug the grave of his daughter. The President of the local unit of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jammat, SM Ibrahim, has squarely blamed the Maulvis of different mosques for inciting anti-Ahmadis to commit the heinous act. In his defence, a local Maulvi named Munir Hossain said that Muslims in the area objected to the parents’ decision to bury the body of the infant at the Muslim cemetery. “It is against the Sharia to let an infidel be buried in a Muslim graveyard. The pious Muslims of the village would never let it happen,” he was quoted as saying.
Persecution of Ahmadis in Bangladesh
The Ahmadis have been the subject of religious persecution in the Islamic Republics of Bangladesh and Pakistan because of the belief that their founder was the Prophet. About 1 lac Ahmadis in Bangladesh have reportedly been attacked. In recent months, Muslim fundamentalists threatened authorities to declare them as non- Muslims. Reportedly, in 2015, three people were injured during a suicide bombing attack at an Ahmadi mosque in the town of Bagmara. In another incident in 1999, a bomb hurled at an Ahmadi mosque in Khulna left 8 people dead.