One more arrested over attack on temples, homes in Brahmanbarhia

Police have arrested another suspect over the mayhem unleashed on Hindu households and temples in Brahmanbarhia.

"Police arrested Mohiuddin Ahmed Belal on Thursday morning from his house in Chaportola Poshchimparha village," said  Additional Superintendent of Police Iqbal Hossain.

The 30-year-old was spotted in a video footage of the attack he said.

The latest arrest takes the number of those arrested in connection with the attacks to 10.

Fourteen temples were ransacked and more than a hundred Hindu houses looted and vandalised in Nasirnagar Upazila of Brahmanbarhia on Sunday over an alleged Facebook post insulting Islam.

Nine were shown arrested the same night in two cases, said Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Abdul Karim of Brahmanbaria Sadar Circle.

A probe committee formed by the police headquarters started investigation in Nasirnagar on Thursday morning. Chittagong Additional DIG Md Shakhawat Hossain is leading the team.

The district police, police headquarters and district authorities each formed a committee to investigate the matter.

Two cases were started in the wake of the devastation on Monday morning. Between 1000-1,200 attackers were accused in each of the cases, said ASP Karim.

The officer-in-charge of Brahmanbarhia’s Nasirnagar Police Station was withdrawn on Wednesday noon for alleged negligence of duty during the attack.

A purported Facebook post by one Rasraj Das, son of Jagannath Das at Haripur Union’s Harinberh village, sparked the incident, according to locals.   

Police on Saturday arrested Rasraj for ‘denigrating Islam’ through his post on the social media. A court then ordered him into prison.

A protest was organised at Nasirnagar and Brahmanbarhia on Sunday under the banner of ‘Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat’.

Similar protests were organised in Habiganj’s Madhabpur.

A group of madrasa students demanded punishment of Rasaraj during a demonstration outside the Brahmanbarhia Press Club at Sunday noon, while several hundred people blocked the Sarail-Nasirnagar-Lakhai road and burned tyres on it.

A group armed with locally-made weapons left the demonstration and attacked Duttaparha, Namashudraparha and Ghoshparha, and Jagannath Temple and Goura Temple at Nasirnagar Sadar, Brahmanbarhia SP Mizanur said quoting witnesses.

They also attacked homes at Duttparha, Ghoshparha, Gangkulparha, Mohakal Parha, Kashiparha, Namashudraparha, Maliparha and Shilparha.

More than 150 homes were vandalised besides the temples, said Haripada Poddar, General Secretary of the Puja celebration council at Nasirnagar Upazila.

At least 20 people including several temple devotees were wounded in the attack, according to Adesh Deb, chief of the Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Unity Council at the Upazila.

In January, a music college named after the renowned composer and music teacher Ustad Alauddin Khan was vandalised in the district following the death of a madrasa student.