The attack on Hindus in Bangladesh knows no stopping. At least 29 homes of Hindus were set on fire on Sunday at a village about 255 km from the Capital city Dhaka, a local news report claimed.
The Fire Service Control Room claimed that 29 residential houses belonging to 15 separate people were torched in Majhipara by an “unruly crowd.” The fire could only be put out after the houses had burnt all night.
This incident of violence came over a rising communal tension at a Durga Puja venue in Cumilla in Bangladesh’s Chittagong division. Hindus were attacked in different districts such as Cumilla, Chandpur, Chattogram, Cox’s Bazar, Bandarban, Moulvibazar, Gazipur and Chapainawabganj.
Dozens have been arrested over the attacks and the spread of communal hatred on social media, the report said.
The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council alleged that at least four Hindu devotees have died in the attacks in Chandpur and Noakhali.
Meanwhile, the elite anti-crime force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has arrested two more men in connection with the looting and vandalism of temples and shops belonging to the Hindu community in Feni, about 155 km from Dhaka.
“They were arrested for their involvement in communal violence and inciting people on social media. They were handed over to the local police station,” said Imran Khan, assistant director of the paramilitary force’s Legal and Media Wing.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has promised to bring justice to culprits, saying anyone involved in the attack on Hindu temples and Durga Puja venues in Cumilla won’t be spared.
“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 said while exchanging greetings with the Hindu community members during an event at Dhakeshwari National Temple in Dhaka on the occasion of Durga Puja.
In a separate report, the bdnews24.com, quoting the prominent rights group in Bangladesh Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), said that as many as 3,679 attacks on the minority Hindu community took place between January 2013 and September this year.
The attacks included vandalism of and setting fire to 559 houses and 442 shops and businesses of the Hindu community, it said. At least 1,678 cases of vandalism and arson attacks on Hindu temples, idols and places of worship were also reported in the same period, it said. While 11 citizens from the Hindu community have died in these incidents, another 862 were injured, the report said.
