13 sentenced to jail for four years in case over Nasirnagar communal attack

A Brahmanbaria court has sentenced 13 people to jail for four years each in a case over the communal attacks on the Hindu community in the district’s Nasirnagar Upazila six years ago.

This is the first verdict delivered in one of the eight cases filed over the incident. Brahmanbaria Chief Judicial Magistrate Mohammad Masud Parvez delivered the verdict on Thursday.

The 13 accused in the case have also been fined Tk 2,000 each.

Hordes of men ransacked Hindu households and temples in Nasirnagar in 2016 following a Facebook post allegedly 'denigrating Islam.' More than 150 homes and 15 temples were vandalised during the incident.

The local temple's priest was among the two individuals who filed separate cases against over 1,000 unidentified persons for the attack, and the police later filed additional lawsuits.

The police arrested the individuals detained after the attack.

The verdict came in the arson case at the old Durga temple in the Paschimpara area of the Upazila Sadar, filed by the then SI Sadhan Kanti Chowdhury of Nasirnagar Police Station.

Rasaraj Das, a fisherman, was arrested and remanded on the allegation of uploading a Facebook post 'insulting Islam'.

“I didn't even know what Facebook was. However, on the day of the incident, a group of people beat me up and picked me up from the house. I was seriously injured. Then they handed me over to the police,” Rasaraj told bdnews24.com.

During the investigation, the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) discovered that the offensive religious pictures were not uploaded from Rasaraj's mobile phone.

Instead, it was found that the photographs were edited at Al Amin Cyber Point and Studio located in Harinber Bazar, which is owned by a man named Jahangir Alam.

From the start, there were accusations that Jahangir had printed a religiously offensive picture from his cyber café and distributed it as leaflets in the vicinity. Following his arrest on Nov 28 last year, Jahangir confessed to the crime in his statement recorded under Section 164.

Brahmanbaria District Court Police Inspector Didarul Alam said that the convicts are Md Mokhlesh Miah, Md Mofizul Haque, Khosru Miah, Nazir Rahman, Md Mafuz Miah, Idu Miah, Sheikh Md Abdul Ahad, Sayham Rabbi Shyam, Mir Kashem, Anis Mia, Tabarak Reza, Sajib Chowdhury and Dewan Atiqur Rahman Ankhi, all residents of different areas of Nasirnagar Upazila.

When the verdict was delivered, five of the convicted individuals were running from the law, while the rest were present in court.

DEFENDANTS DISSATISFIED

The defendant's lawyer, Kamruzzaman Mamun, expressed dissatisfaction with the court's decision. He said the state failed to prove anything beyond doubt that warranted punishment.

He said they would appeal against the judgment in the High Court.

On the other hand, Additional Public Prosecutor Nazmul Hossain beli