"The unprecedented torture of religious minority and ethnic sects, which began centring the 2001 general elections, has not stopped even after 1,500 days," reads the 2,760-page white paper.

"We have been able to record less than one tenth of such incidents," Shahriar Kabir, who edited the white paper published in three parts, said, adding that people did not disclose many of the incidents fearing further torture and harassment.

Binodbihari Chowdhury, an associate of Masterda Suryasen and advisor of the Nirmul Committee, announced the white paper, which carries newspaper reports, editorials, columns, articles and opinion on repression of minorities that has taken place since the caretaker government took over on July 13, 2001 and 46 months from the coalition government's taking office.

A selection of 2,786 reports have been compiled in the first two parts while the third part carries headlines of 4,092 reports published in 16 newspapers published from Dhaka.

"Had the government admitted to the repression and taken steps accordingly, it would have stopped much earlier," Shahriar said while addressing the function.

Quoting Swami Vivekananda's suggestion to turn into 'Buddha man from brute man', Binodbihari said, "Leaders of the present government have appeared in a competition to be most brute from more brute."

"The 1972 Constitution needs to be implemented. Cancelling the prohibition on the formation of political parties on the basis of religion, former president Ziaur Rahman created the scope for the reformation of fundamentalist and religion-based parties, including Jamaat-e-Islami, Nezam-e Islam and Muslim League," said the white paper.

Admitting that torture of minorities has seen a low now, the white paper said the country's constitution says that neither it nor the country is for the non-Muslims. "How can a country having such a communal constitution be a good example of communal harmony?" it asked.

It is impossible to establish communal harmony unless the state and the government are secular, it said.

Repression of religious minorities, which began in mid-July of 2001 after the caretaker government took over, rose widely after the general elections. No single day could be found in the first three months of the coalition government's taking power when repression of minorities did not take place.

Incidents of physical torture, looting, setting fire to households, forced extortion and rape were more than the number of killings, the white paper said.

The victims of murder included people of different ages, from new-born babies to 70-year-olds. Even priests of temples, Buddhist monks and elderly scholars could not escape murder.

In some cases, Hindus were forced to convert to Islam, while Muslims or ethnic people who converted to Christianity willingly were tortured and even killed.

Terming the coalition government as pro-Islam, the white paper said BNP's political philosophy is Islamic nationalism, like that of the Muslim League, although it does not introduce itself as an Islamist party like the Jamaat-e-Islam and Islami Oikya Jote.

The white paper said local activists and supporters of the four-party alliance started attacking, torturing, terrorising and even killing minority religious sects, especially Hindus, at different parts of the country from mid-July of 2001. They worked to ensure that Hindus do not go to voting centres and, if they go, do not cast their vote for any one other than the alliance candidates.

A study of 1,500 days of repression on minorities shows that these efforts aimed mainly at turning Bangladesh into a religiously monolithic country like Afghanistan.

Blaming the government for its continual denial of the repression from the very beginning, the white paper said the local administration did not take any effective steps against the torture due to the government's denial. Complaints of the victims were not even recorded at police stations, it added.

The white paper blamed former chief advisor of the caretaker government, Justice Latifur Rahman, for his denial from the very beginning that communal violence took place anywhere in the country. "Like him, the coalition government also continued denying it since its taking power."

To make the government happy, the police administration at times forced the victims to say that no incidents of repression took place anywhere.

Knowing that the government will act in favour of them, the perpetrators were encouraged for further repression of minorities, it said.

Coming to power, the coalition government ignored the implementation of the hill treaty, which resulted in continual repression of hill people by the military and Muslim settlers, said the white paper.

Besides political vengeance, economic factors acted behind the torture of minority people. However, an overall study shows that in most cases, the perpetrators had an aim to oust the Hindus from the country.

Communal thoughts are growing even in the Awami league, the pioneer of Bangali nationalism and follower of secularism, the white paper noted.

"The minority people who fled the country for life in 1971 returned afterwards. But many of the victims of communal repression who left the country during this coalition rule have told me and the BBC that they would never come back," Shahriar Kabir said in the white paper.

Although the degree of repression of minorities during the coalition rule was higher than that of any other past reign, the opposition failed to take effective steps to stop it, the paper noted.

The white paper recommended five steps for immediate implementation and six for long-term implementation. The immediate steps include formation of a high-profile commission comprising a Supreme Court judge, joint-secretary-level representatives from home and law ministries and human rights organisations to make inquiries into reported incidents of minority repression in the last four years. The commission will submit its report in six months and make recommendations for stopping torture and discrimination of minority sects.

The long-term recommendations include creating mass awareness and implementation of a secular constitution like that of 1972.

Presided over by Prof Kabir Chowdhury, the function was addressed, among others, by AL leader Abdur Razzak, Bangladesh Community Party President Manjurul Ahsan Khan, Workers Party President Rashed Khan Menon, Prof Muntassir Mamoon, Prof Ajay Roy, Prof Nim Chandra Bhoumik and Political Secretary of Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity Usha Kar Talukder.