At the age of 55, Anna is wondering if she will ever see justice for her son’s death during her lifetime.
“How long shall I wait to get the verdict on the killing of my son? I want this government to investigate properly to find the real culprits. Or they should tell us that nothing will happen because we are poor and minority Christians,” she told Compass Direct News.
Her son, Suman Halder, was 23-years-old when he was killed in a bomb attack in Baniarchar Catholic Church in Gopalganj district, about 60 miles south of the capital city of Dhaka, in 2001. Among some 70 people who were attending Sunday prayers, he was one of the ten killed. Another 20 were injured from the bomb blast.
The surviving mother of Suman Halder can only hope that her dead son will receive justice under the new, more religiously tolerant government that was elected in December.
“I think this particular story shows one of the challenges in South Asia where Christians are a very small minority and tend to be low economic level people,” Paul Estabrooks, minister at large for Open Doors USA, told The Christian Post. “I think this is a classic case of overlooking justice for those who are considered to be insignificant.”
On the 2009 Open Doors World Watch List – a report that ranks the world’s countries based on their persecution of Christians – Bangladesh has moved up five spots to No 43, from last year’s No 48 position.
According to Open Doors, the main reasons behind the increased persecution score is attributed to the growing pressure on converts in Bangladesh as well as the death of one believer in February 2008 and the kidnapping and rape of a pastor’s 13-year-old daughter in May.
“Throughout Southeast Asia, believers are pressured by dominant religions and ideologies,” the ministry reports.
And according to believers living in Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, and Communist controlled areas, local authorities are often far from helpful.
The priests from Baniarchar Catholic Church complain that there was never a proper investigation into the attack despite their call for justice. No one has been arrested for the attack in the eight years since, and police had even initially harassed several Christians whom they falsely suspected of being the perpetrators.
