Bangladesh: Police nab second prime suspect behind violence against Hindus

Security agencies in Bangladesh on Saturday, October 23, arrested another man held to be the second key suspect behind the recent string of violence in Bangladesh where minority Hindus were attacked and temples were vandalised during the pious Durga Puja celebrities.

Officials of the Elite Anti-Crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) informed that one of the masterminds behind the October 17 violence in the Pirganj sub-district of northwestern Rangpur, Shaikat Mandal along with his aides were nabbed from Gazipur, on the outskirts of Dhaka on Saturday.

RAB officials said that Mandal had gone live on Facebook triggering people to launch a massive outrage. As many as 70 houses and shops belonging to people of the Hindu community were set on fire at Pirganj following Mandal's post on Facebook on October 17.

Police arrests key suspect Iqbal Hossain

The police had earlier on October 22, Friday arrested Iqbal Hossain, 35 the prime suspect from the Cox Bazar Area. Hossain had allegedly placed the Quran at a Durga Puja Pandal in Cumilla.

The accused Hossain is presently placed under seven-day police custody, where he is being probed by different security and intelligence agencies.

Pertinently, the Bangladesh police so far have nabbed nearly 600 individuals from various parts of the country for inciting violence against the Hindus during the Durga Puja festivities.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Fayez, charged under Bangladesh's Digital Security Act (DSA) for inciting people vias social media was sent to jail on Friday evening, the Daily Star newspaper reported.

Minority community stages protest in Bangladesh

On the other hand, members of the minority religious communities held a mass-hunger and sit-in demonstration at central Dhaka's Shabagh area and other parts of the country under the banner of the Bangladesh Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Unity Council.

"Several thousand people have joined the mass-hunger and sit-in protests in Dhaka's Shabagh, Andarkilla of the south-eastern port city of Chattogram and other parts of the country," council's Joint Secretary Mohindra Kumar Nath told media persons.

Nath said several social and cultural groups and followers of the Islamic faith have also taken part in the rallies to manifest their unanimity with the members of the minority community. The attack on Hindus has been hugely censured by the United Nations.

UN's resident coordinator in Bangladesh censured the attacks on Monday and tweeted that the attacks on Hindus are against the values of the Bangladesh constitution and that it needs to stop.

PM Sheikh Hasina directs 'immediate' action

On Tuesday, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has instructed Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan to initiate 'immediate' action against perpetrators of the 'pre-planned' attacks. Sheikh Hasina's government has claimed a 'conspiracy' to destabilise communal harmony ahead of elections in the country. She also urged people not to trust anything that explodes on social media without checking the facts.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry in a statement underlined that the Government of Bangladesh 'unequivocally condemned those incidents and took serious note of the reactions from within and outside the Hindhu community.' Bangladesh is home to around 16.9 million Hindus, which is around 10 per cent of the Muslim-majority nation.

(Inputs: PTI)

(Image: REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE/ISKCON TWITTER)