A Hindu homestead which also houses a family temple is set on fire by unidentified miscreants at Nasirnagar in Brahmanbaria early Friday.
Tensions began brewing as five Hindu houses were set on fire in a fresh attack on religious minorities at Nasirnagar in Brahmanbaria early Friday and Friday evening despite deployment of additional Border Guard Bangladesh, Rapid Action Battalion and police forces after the earlier attacks on October 30.
Unidentified miscreants set fire to the five houses of Hindus at places of Nasirnagar upazila between 3:00amd and 4:00am, five days after the October 30 attacks by groups of unruly Muslims who vandalised and robbed about 200 houses and business establishments and 22 temples of Hindus in the same area.
Nasirnagar police station sub-inspector Mohiuddin Ahmed told New Age that unknown miscreants set fire to a stack of straw at a Hindu house at Chatipara village of Gukarna union at Nasirnagar Friday evening.
The Hindu community at a human chain said that they were living in the area in insecurity.
A Bangladesh Nationalist Party team led by its vice-chairman Hafiz Uddin Ahmed visiting the affected area on Friday demanded judicial inquiry into the attacks and promised that the party would give financial assistance to the victims.
Bangladesh Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Oikya Parishad and Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad staged human chains across the country on Friday protesting at the attacks and demanding punishment for the attackers.
Dhaka university students brought out processions and blocked roads at Shabagh for about an hour around noon demanding that the attacker must be brought to justice.
The latest incident of setting fire to the five Hindu houses took place at places between 3:00am and 4:00am, said Nasirnagar upazila nirbahi officer Choudhury Muazzam Ahmed.
No casualties were, however, reported.
The five houses, including kitchen and cowshed, were set on fire at Banikpara, Thakurpara, Akhrapara, and behind the upazila health complex.
Local people said that they heard the sound of a CNG-run auto-rickshaw near the house of Padma Debi at Banikpara that was burned by the attackers at about 3:00am.
Padma said they could see none of the attackers.
Activists of the ruling Awami League, opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Jamaat-e-Islami and Hefazat-e-Islam as well as goons from outlying villages, who joined protest rallies at Nasirnagar, instigated and carried out the attacks on the Hindus and vandalised and robbed their temples, houses and business establishments on October 30, local people and victims alleged.
About 200 houses and business establishments and 22 temples of Hindus were vandalised and looted
on October 30 by groups of Muslims.
The attacker came to the upazila headquarters to join rallies demanding punishment of a Hindu youth, Rasraj Das, who allegedly shared a doctored photo showing an idol set on the Kaaba on his Facebook wall on October 28.
Two protest rallies were arranged by Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat in Nasirnagar college intersection and Towhidi Janata of qoumi group backed by Hefazat-e-Islam at Ashutosh Pilot High School.
Nasirnagar Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Oikya Parishad president said that the fresh attacks on Friday began to brew tension afresh among the Hindus in the area as the attacks took place while additional Border Guard Bangladesh, Rapid Action Battalion and police were deployed at the upazila town.
Former Nasirnagar Asutosh Pilot High School headmaster Mahendra Chandra Das said that they could not sleep at night. ‘We are in fear that all of us will be killed the next time.’
Brahmanbaria superintendent of police Mizanur Rahman declined to comment but said that the number of border guards, battalion personnel and cops had been increased further at Nasirnagar.
Top leaders of Bangladesh Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Oikya Parishad and Puja Udjapan Parishad from their joint human chain at National Press Club in Dhaka demanded immediate arrest and exemplary punishment of the attackers and immediate withdrawal of upazila nirbahi officer of Nasirnagar, said Puja Udjapan Parishad president Jayanta Sen Dipu.
The human chain also castigated local lawmaker Muhammed Sayedul Hoque, also the livestock and fisheries minister, for his ‘indecent words’ about Hindu people, he added.
A section of Dhaka University students blocked Shahbagh intersection on for half an hour Friday noon demanding exemplary punishment of the perpetrators.
A car carrying Awami League joint general secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif got stuck in the blockade and the protesters hurled shoes at the car and kicked it, witnesses said, adding that the blockaders later allowed the car to cross the intersection as Hanif expressed solidarity with the protestors.
Earlier Hanif said that the government would compensate the victims.
The protesters demanded judicial inquiry into the attacks.
BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam while talking to journalists in the capital alleged that the local administration at Nasirnagar failed to play their due role in preventing the attacks.
He said such incidents were recurring as there was no democracy and pro-people government in the county.
He also said that the law and order situation was deteriorating alarmingly as law enforcers were being used by the government for its political gain.
– See more at: http://www.newagebd.net/article/2109/houses-set-on-fire-in-fresh-attacks#sthash.z5KmTMon.dpuf
Source: New Age
