Temples torched in two places

Miscreants have vandalised and torched two Hindu temples in Bagerhat’s Fakirhat and Jhalakathi Sadar.

Both incidents took place early Friday morning, police said.

Bagerhat

The attackers damaged and torched several idols at the hundred-year old family temple of Town Nawaparha’s Jamindar Barhi at Piljung Union under Fakirhat Upazila on Friday morning.

Priest Pradip Bhattacharya said he had called out for help seeing smoke belching out of the temple around 8:30am.

“We put out the fire with the help of our neighbours,” he said.

But, by then, the miscreants had damaged several idols including the one of Durga and set fire to those of Laxmi, Saraswati, Ganesh and Kartik.

Superintendent of Police in Bagerhat Md Nizamul Haq Molla visited the site.

He said police had already begun raids to arrest the vandals.

Jhalakathi

Unknown miscreants set fire to the family temple of Dasharath Roy’s house at Sabangal village under Sadar Upazila’s Nothullabad Union in the morning.

Roy said he saw the flames in the early hours. The fire was quickly doused but the idol and the temple’s roof were damaged, he said.

He claimed some local BNP supporters might have been behind the attack on Friday. These supporters have been threatening them to not join the fourth phase of polling of Upazila Parishad polls scheduled on Mar 23, he said.

Police, in the meantime, visited the scene and collected evidence.

Sadar Police Station OC Shilmoni Chakma said preparations were on to lodge a case over the incident.