A recent attack on Hindus in Pabna’s Santhia mirrors last year’s communal attack in Ramu, a group of professionals have said.
They feel some people had spread the canard of Prophet Muhammad being maligned to fan sectarian violence with an aim to loot Hindu property.
In a discussion with media persons in Pabna, the professionals, belonging to Nagorik Protinidhi, demanded that the culprits be dealt with sternly.
Miscreants attacked, ransacked and torched at least 35 houses, three temples and 15 businesses on Saturday following rumours that Rajib Saha, a Hindu boy from Bonogram’s Sahaparha, had slandered Prophet Muhammad on his Facebook page.
Journalist Abed Khan said the miscreants repeated the Ramu incident, making a fake Facebook comment their alibi.
Last year, miscreants attacked and set ablaze many Buddhist temples in Ramu, Cox’s Bazar, following a controversial Facebook post.
He said their investigations had revealed that several people besides Jamaat and Shibir activists were among the gangs of attackers.
Terming the incident a ‘state case’, the senior journalist said that if such elements were to gain ground, law and order would become vulnerable in Pabna and the rest of the country as well.
Abed Khan said a sinister group was working to destroy communal harmony in the country.
He said they had unleashed similar violence before and after the 2001 national election.
He appealed to everyone to be alert against such designs.
Robayet Ferdous, a teacher of Mass Communication and Journalism at Dhaka University, said the country would not progress if communal harmony was not preserved.
The professional group placed a six-point demands that included estimating the extent of loss, repairing of the damaged temples by the government, and taking preventive steps to curb poll-time violence.
Earlier, they visited the Bonogram village and the temples.
On Saturday night, Rajib’s father Bablu Saha sued several hundred people, naming 20, for the attacks.
Police filed two more cases over the incident against 40 people.
Ten people have been arrested in the three cases.
Bablu, however, claimed that no accused in his case had been nabbed.
Source: Bd news24
