Five arrested over attack on police at Rajbari shrine

The violence broke out on Friday afternoon at the shrine of a fringe religious figure known locally as “Nural Pagla”

Five people have been arrested in connection with a case over an attack on police during violent clashes at a shrine in Rajbari's Goalanda.

The arrests were made during overnight raids across the Upazila, Goalanda Ghat Police Station chief Md Rakibul Islam said on Sunday.

The violence broke out on Friday afternoon at the shrine of Nurul Haque, a fringe religious figure known locally as “Nural Pagla”, in Juron Mollapara.

Nurul Haque, who had controversially claimed to be the Islamic figure Imam Mahdi, died recently. His followers buried him in a raised grave designed to resemble the Kaaba, angering supporters of a faction of the "Tawhidi Janata", a loosely defined Islamist movement that purports to defend Islamic morality.

Rakibul said that after Jummah prayers, the Tawhidi Janata held a protest rally that escalated into an attack on the shrine. Followers of Nural Pagla retaliated, triggering clashes that left one person dead and around 50 others injured.

“Later, the Tawhidi Janata set fire to the shrine of Nural Pagla. When police tried to intervene, they were also attacked and a police vehicle was vandalised,” said Rakibul.

A case was later filed against some 3,500 unidentified people over the incident, he added.

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