Sumon Corraya

Bangladesh hospitals at saturation point, with about 200 deaths a day and people unable to buy medicines to treat their loved ones. Yet the government decides to relax measures to contain contagions ahead of Eid al-Adha.

Video goes viral on social media showing lawyer Gobinda Chandra Pramanik speaking out against an alleged anti-Hindu plot, accusing Christians of stealing the Vatican from Hindus. For the Bangladesh Christian Association, “This kind of hate speech is a barrier to religious harmony in the country.”

Many people were injured and scores are missing following the blaze at the Hashem Foods factory. According to survivors and victims’ families, the gate to the plant was locked and the building was not equipped with adequate safety measures. Many died jumping from the fourth floor to escape the flames.

The new homes are given to families displaced by the erosion of banks of the Pashur River. For Bishop Boiragi, help was provided because “The life of internal migrants is very difficult” due to climate change.

Fr Linku Lenard Gomes, 39, will serve as Secretary to the Apostolic Nunciature in Panama starting 1 August. “I will surely use my talents to perform my service in the best possible way,” he told AsiaNews. The Church in Bangladesh is increasingly devoted to the mission. For Bishop Gervas Rozario, after receiving so much, now “the time has come to reciprocate”.

So far the appeal to the Anti-Corruption Commission, which has reported the matter in court, has been in vain. In 2012 the land of a Protestant church and the cemetery forcibly expropriated to build a multi-storey building. Bishop of Rajshahi: rights trampled. An anonymous source: "The land is valuable", taken "with illegal documents" and the connivance of land registry employees.

Out of 65 districts, 43 are at very high risk. Some 879,000 cases have been reported so far with almost 14,000 dead. The Delta variant is spreading and the border area with India is the most affected. The government has vaccines for only 5.8 million people. Christians are getting help from the Church.

The Bangladesh Jatiya Hindu Mahajote has attacked the leader of Banchte Shekha for promoting equal rights for women in inheritance matters. Many Hindus stand by the Catholic activist, a laureate of the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the Asian Nobel Prize, for her work on behalf of the poor and marginalised.

Local NGOs speak out against this terrible practice. Growing poverty is behind the rise in child marriages. A victim, who can no longer go to school, tells her story. Bangladesh is one of the top 10 countries in the world for child marriage.

Joy Haldar died in hospital for 22 long days after he was struck with rods and sticks in a punitive raid during which three other Christians were injured. His mother demands justice. A prayer and protest march are planned next week, with Catholic leaders expected to attend. The attackers have been released on bail.

In a virtual ceremony, the prime minister officially inaugurated new mosques to mark the centenary of the birth of the nation's Founding Father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. However, this is proving controversial on social media. Catholic prelate wonders if minorities will “have their own model places of prayer”.

Every year the anniversary of the constitutional amendment recognising Islam as state religion is marked as a ‘black day’. “If this state of affairs continues, Islamic extremism and communalism will end up creating serious problems”, says the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council.