[On Sunday, hundreds of Muslims entered a
Hindu neighborhood, where they ransacked 15 temples and the homes of more than
100 families, Mr. Deb said. He said that the mob “used long, hard sticks and
locally made sharp weapons” to assault Hindus they found there, and that at
least 20 people, including a priest, were wounded.]
By Julfikar Ali Manik and Ellen Barry
 |
|
A vandalized Hindu temple
on Sunday in Bangladesh. Attacks on Hindus are not
unusual in the country,
but it is rare to see multiple crowds targeting temples as they
did on Sunday and
Monday. Credit Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
|
DHAKA,
Bangladesh — Crowds of
Muslims attacked Hindu homes and temples in eastern Bangladesh this week,
raising concerns that simmering religious tensions could escalate.
Attacks on Hindus are not unusual in
Bangladesh, but it is rare to see multiple crowds targeting temples in an
organized way as they did on Sunday and Monday.
On Saturday, an Islamic group in Nasirnagar
organized a protest against a Facebook post it found offensive. The post
included an image of the Hindu god Shiva appearing at a Muslim holy site in the
Saudi city of Mecca.
The crowd demanded that the young Hindu man
who created the image be put to death. Nevertheless, the group was given
permission to hold a rally the next day, and mosque loudspeakers were used to
mobilize an even larger group, said Anjan Kumar Deb, the vice chairman of
Nasirnagar subdistrict.
On Sunday, hundreds of Muslims entered a
Hindu neighborhood, where they ransacked 15 temples and the homes of more than
100 families, Mr. Deb said. He said that the mob “used long, hard sticks and
locally made sharp weapons” to assault Hindus they found there, and that at
least 20 people, including a priest, were wounded.
The district police chief, Mohammad Mizanur
Rahman, characterized the damage as less extensive, saying that eight temples
and 22 houses were damaged, and that one person was hurt.
Ten suspects were under arrest, he said. The
Hindu youth who is believed to have posted the controversial image was arrested
on Saturday.
Mr. Deb, who is Hindu, said that Nasirnagar,
whose population is 40 percent Hindu, has never experienced religious violence
on this scale.
“Even in 1971, during the Liberation War,
Nasirnagar was a safe place for Hindus, when many Hindus were killed and
tortured in other parts of Bangladesh,” he said.
Mr. Deb added that he felt the police and
local officials “failed to ensure the security of the Hindu community, even
after knowing about the tension and the rally.”
Hindus make up about 11 percent of the
population of Bangladesh, where Muslims constitute the majority, according to
government statistics.
Kazi Reazul Hoque, the head of the country’s
human rights commission, said local officials made a “gross mistake” by
allowing the crowd to regroup Sunday morning. Bangladeshi newspapers offered
similar criticism. The Daily Star, in an editorial on Wednesday, called the
government’s inaction “baffling.”
“Has the government lost confidence that the
majority of the people of this country, although religious, believe in a
pluralistic society?” the editorial asked.
Four other episodes of religious violence
were recorded at roughly the same time: On Sunday, crowds ransacked four Hindu
temples and households in the nearby town of Madhabpur, the police said. On
Monday, unidentified men broke into a temple in Hathazari, near the city of
Chittagong, stealing gold jewelry and cash left by worshipers at a Hindu
festival, the Hathazari police said.
Another confrontation occurred in the northeastern
town of Chhatak on Monday. After Hindus celebrating a festival set off
firecrackers near a mosque, several dozen Muslim men converged on a nearby
Hindu temple, pelting it with stones, the police said. A group of Muslim youths
also defaced an idol at a Hindu temple in the southern city of Gopalganj,
according to Salim Reza, the officer in charge of the police station there.
