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DHAKA: Two Hindu men have been killed in fresh communal violence in Bangladesh, police officials said on Saturday, taking the death toll to six from recent unrest in the country. Protests began on Wednesday after footage emerged on social media of a “blasphemous incident” during celebrations at a Durga Puja pavilion in Cumilla, bordering Chandpur and about 100 kms from Dhaka.
Police said the latest violence occurred in the southern town of Begumganj of Noakhali district when hundreds of Muslims formed a street procession after Friday prayers on the final day of Durga Puja. More than 200 protesters attacked a temple where members of the Hindu community were preparing to perform the last rituals of the 10-day festival, local police station chief Shah Imran said. The attackers beat and stabbed to death an executive member of the temple committee, he said. On Saturday morning, another Hindu man’s body was found near a pond, district police chief Shahidul Islam said. “Two men have died since yesterday’s attack. We are working to find the culprits,” he added.
Anti-Hindu violence spread to more than a dozen districts across Bangladesh this week after footage of the blasphemous incident emerged online. At least four people were killed on Wednesday when police opened fire on a crowd of around 500 people attacking a Hindu temple in Hajiganj, one of several towns hit by the disturbances. Extreme right-wing Islamic Shashontantra Andolon on Saturday took out a procession in downtown Dhaka area against the viral social media image from Cumilla, saying it was insulting to the country’s Muslim majority.
Local authorities said they have deployed extra security to control any further unrest. The paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has expanded the vigil from 22 to 34 out of 64 administrative districts. The elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) said it expects to arrest some of the key perpetrators of the sporadic violence which took place in the past three days.
“So far around 90 people have been arrested. We will also hunt down all the masterminds,” home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said. Voicing optimism over the probe, Kamal said “we expect developments of the investigations in the next one or two days”.
At least 150 Hindus were injured across the country, community leader Gobinda Chandra Pramanik said, and at least 80 makeshift temples had been attacked. Authorities did not confirm the figures.
On Friday, violence broke out in the capital Dhaka and Chittagong, prompting police to fire tear gas and rubber bullets at thousands of brick-throwing Muslim protesters. Highspeed mobile phone internet services were shut down in an apparent bid to prevent the violence from spreading.
PM Sheikh Hasina met leaders of the Hindu community on Thursday and promised stern action. “The incidents in Cumilla are being thoroughly investigated. Nobody will be spared. It doesn’t matter which religion they belong to. They will be hunted down and punished,” she had said. The government and law enforcement agencies described the incidents as “planned” with the aim of destabilising the country. The Durga Puja celebrations, considered to be the biggest festival of the minority Hindu community in Bangladesh, concluded without the traditional Bijoya Dashami procession due to Covid and vandalism incidents. The minority Hindu community makes up about 10% of the 169 million population.
Police said the latest violence occurred in the southern town of Begumganj of Noakhali district when hundreds of Muslims formed a street procession after Friday prayers on the final day of Durga Puja. More than 200 protesters attacked a temple where members of the Hindu community were preparing to perform the last rituals of the 10-day festival, local police station chief Shah Imran said. The attackers beat and stabbed to death an executive member of the temple committee, he said. On Saturday morning, another Hindu man’s body was found near a pond, district police chief Shahidul Islam said. “Two men have died since yesterday’s attack. We are working to find the culprits,” he added.
Anti-Hindu violence spread to more than a dozen districts across Bangladesh this week after footage of the blasphemous incident emerged online. At least four people were killed on Wednesday when police opened fire on a crowd of around 500 people attacking a Hindu temple in Hajiganj, one of several towns hit by the disturbances. Extreme right-wing Islamic Shashontantra Andolon on Saturday took out a procession in downtown Dhaka area against the viral social media image from Cumilla, saying it was insulting to the country’s Muslim majority.
Local authorities said they have deployed extra security to control any further unrest. The paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has expanded the vigil from 22 to 34 out of 64 administrative districts. The elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) said it expects to arrest some of the key perpetrators of the sporadic violence which took place in the past three days.
“So far around 90 people have been arrested. We will also hunt down all the masterminds,” home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said. Voicing optimism over the probe, Kamal said “we expect developments of the investigations in the next one or two days”.
At least 150 Hindus were injured across the country, community leader Gobinda Chandra Pramanik said, and at least 80 makeshift temples had been attacked. Authorities did not confirm the figures.
On Friday, violence broke out in the capital Dhaka and Chittagong, prompting police to fire tear gas and rubber bullets at thousands of brick-throwing Muslim protesters. Highspeed mobile phone internet services were shut down in an apparent bid to prevent the violence from spreading.
PM Sheikh Hasina met leaders of the Hindu community on Thursday and promised stern action. “The incidents in Cumilla are being thoroughly investigated. Nobody will be spared. It doesn’t matter which religion they belong to. They will be hunted down and punished,” she had said. The government and law enforcement agencies described the incidents as “planned” with the aim of destabilising the country. The Durga Puja celebrations, considered to be the biggest festival of the minority Hindu community in Bangladesh, concluded without the traditional Bijoya Dashami procession due to Covid and vandalism incidents. The minority Hindu community makes up about 10% of the 169 million population.
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