The fall of Dhaka: 40 years after

DHAKA: It has been 40 years since East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, was separated from Pakistan after a nine-month war on December 16, 1971.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, popularly referred to as Sheikh Mujib was an avowed secularist who sought to woo the country’s large Hindu electorate.

He abolished the Enemy Property Act, a Pakistani-imposed law that allowed the government to seize property of Hindus who fled to India.

But after Sheikh Mujib was assassinated in a military coup in 1975, the new military rulers began amending the constitution, replacing secularism with "absolute faith in Allah", legalising religious-based political parties, and making Islam the state religion.

Throughout the politically turbulent 1990s, the Hindu community came under attack when sectarian tensions flared, particularly during a bout of post-election violence in 2001.

Official data shows the Hindu community has shrunk from 15 to 10 percent of the population since the 1970s.

Since the current secular Awami League government -- led by Sheikh Mujib's daughter, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina -- came to power in 2009, it has rolled back some of the religious inroads made by previous military regimes.

In a series of constitutional amendments it restored the principle of secularism but kept Islam as the state religion.

It has put 1971 alleged war criminals on trial -- including for specific attacks on the Hindu community -- and pledged to prosecute people identified in a new report as carrying out post-election attacks on Hindus in 2001.

Moreover, last month it passed a landmark bill, enabling the return of property seized by the government from Hindus -- a move that, if enforced, could transform the economic fortunes of the Hindu community.

Returning some properties will be difficult. Many of those seized under previous governments have been cultivated and developed by their Muslim neighbours.