Bangladesh church bombing: 25 years on, Catholic victims still await justice

GOPALGANJ, Bangladesh — Twenty-five years after a bomb attack during Sunday Mass killed 10 Catholics and injured more than 50 at Most Holy Redeemer Church in Baniarchar, southern Bangladesh, the parish priest says his community has all but given up hope of seeing anyone brought to justice.

“We donʼt expect any more justice, because we, the minority, will not get justice in this country,” Father David Gharami, parish priest of the church, told EWTN News. “We Catholics are a minority among the minorities. Thatʼs why no government pays attention to us.”

On June 3, 2001, at least 10 people were killed and more than 50 injured when a bomb exploded during Sunday Mass at Most Holy Redeemer Church in Baniarchar, in Gopalganj district. A quarter of a century later, police have yet to file a full charge sheet in the case.

Gharami said the parish has grown weary of seeking justice from the government. “For the past four to five years, no investigating officer has been looking into our case,” he said. He believes the attack was carried out by a religious extremist group or for political or social motives.

“On this day, we offer a Mass for the souls of those who died and pay floral tributes at their graves,” he said.

Nine of the 10 people killed in the bombing were between the ages of 20 and 25, and one was in his 40s, according to Premananda Halder, a local schoolteacher.

At the time of the attack, Sheikh Hasinaʼs Awami League was in power; Gopalganj is Hasinaʼs home district, and she visited the site after the bombing. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party won the parliamentary election held on Feb. 12 this year. Successive governments have come and gone, but no one has been brought to justice for the bombing.

Lalita Biswas, 46, a Catholic and mother of one, has sought justice for 25 years. Her husband, Satish Biswas, was among the 10 killed.

“I am tired of seeking justice, I donʼt want to seek justice anymore. If I get justice for my husbandʼs murder, I will be happy,” Biswas told EWTN News. “I will not get my husband back, or the son his father, but if we get justice, I will be able to see the punishment of those who killed him.”

Twenty-five years later, Bangladeshi police have yet to complete their investigation. Some 38 suspected militants have been arrested over the years, but none has confessed, and the investigating officer has been changed at least 22 times in 25 years.

The current investigating officer could not be reached. A former investigating officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told EWTN News that police were still working on the case.

“The investigating officer has been changed repeatedly, and a lack of sufficient evidence is prolonging the inquiry. But I hope police will be able to submit a full report soon,” he said.