Bangladesh's interim government chief Mohammad Yunus on Saturday called the recent atrocities on the minority communities in the country "heinous" and requested the youths, who led the movement against Sheikh Hasina that finally forced her to resign, to save the families under attack.

"Are they not the people of this country? You have been able to save the country; can't you save some families?" he asked, urging the students to protect all Hindu, Christian, and Buddhist families from harm, during an address he delivered at Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur.

"You must say, no one can harm them. They are my brothers; we fought together, and we will stay together," he went on, underscoring the need for national unity.

The plea from the new Nobel peace prize winner came on a day Bangladesh witnessed unprecedented street protests by people belonging to the Hindu, Christian and Buddhist communities as they urged the Yunus-led administration to take immediate measures to stop the attacks on the minorities across the country. From the protest gatherings -- be it in Dhaka or in Chittagong -- the demand for formation of a ministry for minorities, establishment of a minority protection commission, enactment and implementation of strict laws to prevent all forms of attacks on minorities, and allocation of 10 percent of parliamentary seats for minorities -- were reiterated.

"Not a single minority family in the country escaped the attacks after Hasina's resignation... Attacks on minorities are not new in Bangladesh, but this time it crossed all the limits," said Jewel Aich, one of the coordinators of the protests that took place in Cheragi Pahar crossing in Jamalkhan area in the port city of Chittagong.

According to him, over 1.5 lakh people took part in the protest rally from where slogans demanding justice for the minority communities were raised repeatedly and the Yunus-led government was warned that the movement would not stop till concrete measures are taken to address the concerns of over 1.6 crore people belonging to the minority community in the country of over 17 crore people.

Thousands of people belonging to the minority communities held a similar demonstration in capital Dhaka at Shahbagh square -- known as the seat of protests -- for the second day demanding safety and protesting alleged attacks on their homes and temples in various districts across the country following Hasina''s resignation. Similar protest rallies were reported from several other parts of the country like Faridpur, Cox's Bazar, Panchagarh and Comilla.

"Such protest rallies were held in at least 23 districts... And none of them were organsied by any political party or established minority forums. These were all spontaneous gatherings, led by the students belonging to the minority communities," a lecturer with a private university in Dhaka told this correspondent.

A former MP belonging to the Awami League corroborated the claim saying that when he went to stand by the protestors, at Shahbag, they told him to leave the place as they didn't want any political leader in the gathering.

"Such spontaneous gatherings take place only when people are pushed to the wall. I am a Hindu woman and I know of so many incidents of attacks on women. I am so scared to go out of my home. People are forced to pay the goons for safety... How long would we suffer every time there is an election or a regime change or some incidents in India?" she asked.

While the social media is flooded with posts and videos on attacks and assaults on minorities -- and also the secular and the liberal sections of the society -- several people from Bangladesh rued the absence of any reportage of such incidents in the large sections of the mainstream media.

"The media may have overlooked the attacks and claim things have normalised, then why did Dr. Yunus make an appeal to the students?" asked a journalist belonging to the Hindu community, whose office was attacked.

"Isn't it an admission that the minorities are under attack? What steps have been taken?" she added.

Several viral videos of thousands of people belonging to the minority communities gathering near the barbed fences along the border and urging the BSF to let them in further corroborated the claims of the minority communities in Bangladesh.

Though the Indian authorities have not taken any decision on whether it would allow refugees from Bangladesh, sources said New Delhi was closely observing the evolving situation in the neighbouring country.

After extending his best wishes to Yunus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended urged him to ensure the safety and protection of Hindus and all other minority communities. This direct reference to the safety of Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh underlines Delhi’s expectations from the interim government.