have been killed. The eviction drive carried out by a sugar mill authority in close connivance with local Member of the Parliament Abul Kalam Azad in presence and active co-operation of law-enforcing agency. In fact, the local inhabitants of sauntal (indigenous) villages were in cultivation of the land from their previous generations. According to eyewitness report, the eviction drive was conducted directly by the police with the backing of the ruling party Lawmaker Abul Kalam Azad. Bangladesh’s leading human rights activist Sultana Kamal speaking at a rally condemning this attack: “Awami League's party men were directly involved in several communal attacks on the minorities across the country.” It may be noted that I have not included in my statement the ISIS-inspired killings of the minority priests that have occurred in the country in recent times. A well-known researcher of Bangladesh Professor Abul Barkat of Dhaka University predicted on November 20, 2016 that at the current rate of exodus of the Hindus no will be left in Bangladesh after 30 years.The minorities constituted about 20 % of the total population but today, they constitute less than 9 % of the population. It is the government that has robbed the minorities of their equal rights by declaring Islam as the state religion in 1988 and then reaffirming it by the currently ruling secularists in 2011 through the 15 th Amendment to the constitution. Successive governments seized 2.8 million acres of land from the minorities. Honorable chair, and distinguished participants, since the campaign of religious & ethnic cleansing is happening in Bangladesh with the direct or indirect support of the government, and since it is not happening due to war or conflict, it can easily be stopped by the government. The ruling Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina can stop this vicious campaign by taking the following measures: 1. Restore the 1972 constitution thus restoring equal rights for all citizens. 2. Enact a Hate Crime & Speech Law; and, then prosecute and punish the perpetrators of crime against the minorities under those laws, so the majority group will cease to think the minorities as an expendable commodity. 3. Equal rights and Dignity 4. Empowerment and Representation 5. Elimination of Constitutional Discrimination 6. Revisit the Vested Property Restoration Act of 2011 and include language in the legislation so that owners of properties seized by the government under the “Enemy Property Act/Vested Property Act” and/or their rightful heirs may claim their property any time in the future regardless of their residency status. Honorable Madam chair, if you feel that the remaining 2o million religious & ethnic minorities of Bangladesh deserves to live in their ancestral homeland with human dignity enjoying the very basic human rights, please include the suggested measures in your list of recommendations. Thank you. Amarendra Roy