Bangladesh: Hindus under threat - Hundreds leave home in panic as Jamaat-BNP-led post-polls terror strikes

The Daily Star (Bangladesh)

Hindus under threat

Hundreds leave home in panic as Jamaat-BNP-led post-polls terror strikes them in several districts
Star Report

Hindus under threat
Hundreds of local Hindus take refuge at a temple in Goreya upazila since Sunday night in fear of attacks by Jamaat-BNP men. Photo: Star/ Focus Bangla

It has been a long 43 years. But the Hindus are still vulnerable to attacks by anti-liberation forces. They are not safe in independent Bangladesh as in East Pakistan before the Liberation War.
Nobody can blame them if they feel this way after Sunday night's post-poll attacks by BNP-Jamaat men in Thakurgaon, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Bogra, Lalmonirhat, Rajshahi, Chittagong and Jessore.
What will Mayarani feel? Jamaat-Shibir activists looted all her savings, even a handful of rice, while attacking her tiny tin hut in Chanpatola-Malopara under Abhaynagar upazila in Jessore. They also destroyed the hut by hacking.
Talking to our Jessore correspondent, Mayarani, who works as a domestic help in neighbouring houses, said she now has only one clothe left, a saree which she was wearing.
The Jamaat-Shibir rampage reminds Doyamoy Sarkar, another villager, of the atrocities by Pakistani occupations forces and their collaborators in 1971.
Hindus under threat
Hindus and Awami Leaguers of Chehelgazi union in Dinajpur, attempt to leave the area following attacks on their homes, businesses and properties. Photo: Star/ Focus Bangla

His small shop was looted and fishing nets worth about Tk 50,000 at his house were burned down.
“We left our house in 1971 as Pak army and razakars set our village on fire. And we are passing through the same ordeal in 2014,” he said.
About 700 elderly, young women, men, babies and children of Malopara took shelter at Deyapara village across the river Bhairab following the attack.
About one hundred of the household the Hindu families were vandalised and looted and 10/12 households were torched.
Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir activists numbering about 400/500 carried out the massive destruction for two hours in the Hindu village for violating their order of not going to the vote centre. They exploded about 250 bombs during the havoc.
Hindus under threat
Jamaat-Shibir men go on the rampage, in Kornai Bazar of Dinajpur Sunday evening. Photo: Star/ Focus Bangla

A number of people said they had called police, ruling Awami league leaders and the administration over the mobile phones but no one came in time. Police reached the village after 9:00pm, when it was all over.
Our Thakurgaon correspondent, during a visit yesterday afternoon found about twelve hundred people from five hundred Hindu families of Gopalpur village sheltered at a temple of Iscon (International Society for Krishna Consciousness).
Monoranjan Muhuri, 50, of the village told this correspondent that they left their village on Sunday evening.
Following a clash between Awami League and BNP supporters that left one dead and a few hundred injured, Jamaat-BNP men with sharp weapons, sticks and iron rods attacked the Hindus and others Awami League supporters.
Our Dinajpur correspondent reports, at least 350 houses and 50 shops of five villages including Pritampara, Sahapara, Profullahpara, Telipara, Madhabpara and Ajaypara of Kornai village under were damaged, set ablaze and looted.
According to the locals of the area, around 2000 Jamaat-Shibir men armed with sharp weapons and sticks launched the attack at Kornai village around 5:30pm Sunday.
Several hundred Hindu men, women and children fled their homes after the attack.
“My house was set on fire. All my valuables were burnt to ashes,” said Fonibala Roy, wife of Santosh Chandra Roy. She showed our correspondent the gutted books of her daughter, an SSC examinee this year.
Iqbalur Rahim, lawmaker of Dinajpur-3, visited the areas on Monday assured many people not leave the area as the government would secure their safety.
In Chittagong Hindus are also under threats following attacks on poll-night in Satkania, Loahagara and Banshkhali upazilas, considered to be a strongholds of Jamaat-Shibir.
In Loahagara upazila, around 9:00pm on the polls day, Jamaat-Shibir men vandalised and looted several shops owned by Hindus at Hindur Haat in Kolujan union, said locals and police.
The miscreants also tried to attack a nearby Hindu temple, but locals resisted them, reports our Chittagong office.
Besides, the Jamaat BNP men also attacked Hindus in Kaunia upazila of Rangpur and in Nandigram upazila in Bogra, reports our correspondents.

Published: 12:02 am Tuesday, January 07, 2014