The home minister has sprung to the defence of police who are widely accused of doing nothing to prevent hate attacks on minority Hindus in Brahmanbarhia.
They did their job, he insists, even though investigations are ongoing and the victims allege police and the administration had looked the other way.
Fifteen temples were ransacked and more than a hundred Hindu houses looted and vandalised in Nasirnagar Upazila on Sunday over an alleged Facebook post insulting Islam.
The purported post by a Hindu man had triggered a protest rally that instigated the attack in the presence of the local Upazila adminstration chief (UNO) and the Nasirnagar police OC.
Local police OC Abdul Quader has been withdrawn.
Speaking to the media on Thursday, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, however, said he finds no ‘failure’ of the police officer.
Over allegations of the administration and police’s negligence, he said, “We have checked that there was no lacking on our part.
“There was no lacking on his (OC) part. But we think he could have been done more and that’s why he has been withdrawn.”
Sunday’s attack followed a protest organised by ‘Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat’, an Islamist outfit.
OC Quader and UNO Chowdhury Moazzem Ahmed also addressed the rally.
The local RAB unit said the attackers had fled before they reached the scene.
A probe committee formed by the Police Headquarters started investigation in Nasirnagar on Thursday morning. Chittagong Additional DIG Md Shakhawat Hossain is leading the team.
Two other bodies, by the district police and district administration, are also running separate investigations.
“You (the media) know what happened and how it started.
“We have taken immediate measures and the prime minister also sent her own team to assess the situation,” Kamal said on Thursday.
Two cases have been started over the incident. Between 1000 and 1,200 attackers were accused in each of them.
The purported Facebook post by one Rasraj Das, son of Jagannath Das at Haripur Union’s Harinberh village, sparked the incident, according to locals.
Police on Saturday arrested Das for ‘denigrating Islam’ through his post on the social media. A court then ordered him into prison.
On Thursday, a Brahmanbarhia court granted police five days to question Das in custody.
Source: Bd news24
