HC pulls up government

The High Court on Sunday directed the government to ensure full security for Hindu households and their temples which were attacked and vandalised on Thursday at Noakhali’s Begumganj.

The bench of justices AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury and Mahmudul Hoque issued the suo moto rule following newspaper reports regarding the incident.

The court ordered the government to undertake repair of the houses of the affected Hindu families.

It issued a rule asking why no orders should be given to take legal measures and arrest those responsible for the attacks.

The court has asked the Senior Assistant Secretary of the Home Ministry, Inspector General of Police, the Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police of Noakhali district and Begumganj Police Station Officer-in-Charge to respond to the rule within 10 days.

They would also have to submit a report on the progress of their action over the court’s direction.

Activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir on Thursday set fire to the Hindu houses and temples in Noakhali hours after Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee was awarded death sentence by the International Crimes Tribunal-1.

Right after the verdict, leaders and activists of Jamaat and Shibir took out a procession at Begumganj upazila and then carried out the violent attacks.

Several newspapers and media outlets including bdnews24.com reported the attacks at Alampur and Aladinnagar villages at Rajganj union under the upazila.

The report said that at least 76 Hindu families lost everything in the Jamaat-Shibir rampage. “Jamaat and Shibir activists attacked 10 Hindu households of the area and set 36 houses on fire. They also vandalised and looted 53 houses there.”

The activists of the fundamentalist party, which opposed Bangladesh’s independence in 1971, vandalised and torched five Hindu temples including those at Rajganj Bazar, Thakur Barhi and Kalirhaat areas.

Jamaat men attack Hindus in Noakhali