Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: The Bangladesh Police arrested six persons and booked over 500 for targeting the minority Hindus’ temples and homes in several districts of the neighboring country over the issue of blasphemy, as a spill-over of the recent developments in France, over the last weekend.
Media reports from Dhaka said radical Islamists set on fire, vandalized, and looted temples and houses of several Hindu families in the Muslim-majority nation’s Comilla district over rumors about a Facebook post allegedly slandering Islam.
Temples and houses of the Hindu community were attacked in Muradnagar as well, besides some news outlets, including BBC Bangla and bdnews24.
At least 15 temples were vandalized on Sunday at Nasirnagar in Brahmanbarhia district and over 100 houses of the minority Hindu community were looted. Two temples in neighboring Madhabpur and Habigunj were also attacked.
Police arrested six persons for their alleged involvement in arson and violence and paramilitary Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) was deployed at Nasirnagar and Madhabpur Upazila headquarters along with the Rapid Action Battalion, police, and Armed Police Battalion.
Reports said the Nasirnagar incident started with a Facebook post by a person from Harinberh village under Haripur Union Parishad. Police detained the accused on Friday last on charges of blasphemy and sent him to jail following a court order.
The Hindus’ households were vandalized and set on fire on Sunday after a Bangladeshi man, who lives in France, allegedly praised President Macron for taking steps against ‘inhumane ideologies’, after a teacher in Paris was decapitated for showing caricatures of the Prophet, officials said.
The headmaster of a kindergarten school in Purbo Dhour and another person reportedly shared these comments. These became viral on social media with the claim that the headmaster supported caricatures of the Prophet. As the rumors about the Facebook post spread, tension mounted in the area on Saturday.
A police official said youth activists of an ‘anti-government political party’ reportedly mobilized the radical Muslims’ mob for the vandalism.
The Bangladesh Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Unity Council, which sent a delegation to the scene of crime, found the situation “pathetic”, its presidium member Kajol Debnath said, adding, religious sentiment is not one-way traffic.
In India, Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, referred to the targeting of Hindu families in Bangladesh by fundamentalist forces, resulting in the arson and violence as a reprisal of the stand taken by the Government of India. He also urged the government to take up the issue with the Bangladesh Government to prevent further escalation.