DHAKA, BANGLADESH, October 31, 2016 (Daily Pakistan): An angry mob ransacked at least 15 temples and hundreds of houses belonging to Hindus in Bangladesh’s Chittagong on Sunday against an alleged Facebook post demeaning the most sacred mosque in the world, local media reports said on Monday. “Thousands of people, including activists of Hefajat-e-Islam and Ahle Sunnat, brought out separate rallies in Nasirnagar under Brahmanbaria district on Sunday demanding capital punishment for the man whose posting demeaned the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca,” reported The Daily Star.
Brahmanbaria superintendent of police Mizanur Rahman told the newspaper that around 150 to 200 people launched the attacks and vandalised at least seven to eight statues inside five temples in the area. Nasirnagar Puja Committee’s general secretary Khailpada Poddar, however, alleged that at least 15 Hindu temples were vandalized and looted. “Two hundred Hindu houses were ransacked and looted,” he told the newspaper.
The violence was contained by the police who took control over law and order in the area around 2:00pm, Rahman said. A raid was also conducted to nab the culprits. A large number of security personnel from the police, Rapid Action Battalion, and paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh have been deployed in the area, the report said.