MUMBAI: Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) international general secretary Pravin Togadia has advised the Union government to attack Bangladesh and annex three of its districts “if the policy of ethnic cleansing against Bangladeshi Hindus and Buddhist Chakmas continues’’.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Mr Togadia said that the contiguous belt consisting Khulna, Mymensing and Chittagong districts should be occupied by India and used for rehabilitating Hindus and Buddhists who fled Bangladesh due to persecution.

Recalling that India’s first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had threatened to carve out a territory from the then East Pakistan if the persecution of Hindus continued, Mr Togadia said, Hindus in Bangladesh were safe till the Khalida Zia regime came to power.

As fundamentalist elements were included in this government, the persecution restarted. “Lakhs of Hindus and Buddhists have entered West Bengal in recent months,’’ he said.

The Indian government should immediately launch a campaign to send back the estimated 2.75 crore illegal Bangladeshi immigrants ‘if the BJP-led government at the Centre was of a true nationalist character,’ Mr Togadia said.

Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani should present an action plan on this issue to the nation. Mr Togadia said a Dharma Sansad would be held in Delhi between February 22 and 24 to discuss all issues relating to Hindutva, including the temple construction at Ayodhya.

Mr Togadia said neither Gandhian ideology nor Nehruvian secularism was an answer to growing Islamic terrorism. “Only the declaration that India is a Hindu rashtra and the revival of the virile Kshatriya tradition could save the country,’’ he observed.