At least six persons have been killed and several injured during violence, which erupted after alleged desecration incident during Durga Puja festival.
Dhaka
A section of Dhaka University students on Monday blocked the Shahbagh intersection in the capital protesting attacks on temples, houses and mandaps of Hindu Community in different parts of the country.
At around 10:30 am, the protesting students took position at the Shahbagh intersection. Due to the blockade, the traffic movement from Shahbag to Paltan, Science Lab, Bangla Motor and TSC was closed. After a while some more students gathered in the TSC area and brought out procession.
A group of miscreants set fire to a number of houses of the Hindus at a remote village of Pirganj upazila in Rangpur district on Sunday night following a Facebook post allegedly by a Hindu youth defaming Kaaba, Daily Sun reported.
Officials said that police members were deployed at the Majhipara’s Jelepolli, a neighborhood of fishermen, in the evening as the Facebook post went viral.
At least 20 homes were completely burnt in village at Ramnathpur Union in the attack, report said quoting the sources.
However, a Pakistani online news service reported that widespread violence have erupted in Bangladesh against Hindus soon after Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina warned India over rising hate crimes against Muslims.
In the last couple of days, hundreds of Hindus have been injured in violence while many have lost their lives in backlash to growing hate crimes against Muslims in India, it said.
Police in Bangladesh have detained at least 300 suspects after two Hindu men were killed and temples vandalized following unrest triggered by the alleged desecration of the Muslim holy book during a Hindu religious festival last week.
Violence erupted across Bangladesh after a photo was widely circulated on social media on Wednesday, showing the Quran placed on the knee of a Hindu deity during celebrations for the Durga Puja festival in the eastern district of Cumilla.
Angry mobs attacked Hindu temples and clashed with police in various parts of Bangladesh in the following days, leaving at least six people, including two Hindus, dead and more than 100 injured.
Police said more than 200 attackers beat and stabbed to death an executive member of the temple committee in the southern town of Begumganj where members of the Hindu community were preparing to perform the last rites of the 10-day Durga Puja festival.
On Saturday morning, another Hindu man’s body was found near a pond next to the temple, district police chief Shahidul Islam told AFP news agency.
“Two men have died since yesterday’s attack. We are working to find the culprits,” he added. The Hindu community makes up about 10 percent of Bangladesh’s 165 million population.
At least four others were killed late on Wednesday when police opened fire on a crowd of about 500 people attacking a Hindu temple in Hajiganj, one of several towns hit by the disturbances, Al-Jazeera reported today.
Violence also broke out in the capital Dhaka and the port city of Chittagong, prompting police to fire tear gas and rubber bullets at thousands of brick-throwing Muslim protesters.
High-speed mobile phone internet services were shut down in an apparent bid to prevent the violence from spreading.
Bangladeshi media reports on Sunday said at least 20 homes belonging to Hindus were torched in Rangpur city’s Pirganj neighborhood.
According to Daily Observer of Bangladesh, Jatiya Party’s leader GM Quader has termed the violence as conspiracy. “A conspiracy is there to destroy the communal harmony of the country in a planned way. It’s necessary to investigate how the Quran was kept at the puja mandapa amid the vigilance of law enforcers,” he said.
GM Quader, also the deputy opposition leader in parliament, came up with the remarks while speaking at a divisional representatives’ meeting of Jatiya Party’s Khunla unit at the party chairman’s Banani office, UNB reports.
He said the Hindu community members will never desecrate the Quran to foil their puja festival while no Muslim can conspire to disgrace the Qur’an if s/he has the slightest faith in the religion.
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Courtesy: Daily Sun, Daily Observer, The Truth International
