Durga Puja celebrations conclude in Bangladesh amidst communal unrest; one other devotee discovered lifeless – Instances of India

Border Guard Bangladesh personnel stand guard as Hindu devotees put together to immerse a Durga idol within the Buriganga River in Dhaka (AFP)

DHAKA: The Durga Puja celebrations have concluded in Bangladesh at the same time as one other devotee was discovered lifeless on Saturday amidst days of communal unrest and violence unleashed by unidentified individuals who vandalised temples over alleged blasphemy, resulting in the deployment of paramilitary forces in additional than half of administrative districts.
Authorities in a single day imposed a nationwide safety vigil whereas officers stated that preliminary investigations have thrown up essential proof in opposition to the perpetrators of violence in opposition to the minority Hindu neighborhood’s Durga Puja.
The paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has expanded the vigil from 22 to 34 out of 64 administrative districts.
The elite anti-crime Fast Motion Battalion (RAB) stated it expects to arrest a few of the key perpetrators of the sporadic violence which passed off previously three days.
Voicing optimism over the investigation, house minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal instructed reporters that “we count on developments of the investigations within the subsequent one or two days”.
The police, in the meantime, stated that they’ve recovered the physique of a devotee from a pond close to a temple in southeastern Begumganj sub-district of Noakhali.
In line with a neighborhood chief, the deceased was a sufferer of assaults on devotees on Friday.
4 individuals had been killed and scores of others injured throughout clashes between bother makers and the police at Hajiganj sub-district in central Chandpur on Wednesday and Thursday, prompting the federal government to name out paramilitary forces to keep up regulation and order throughout the nation.
With the newest killing, the dying toll in the course of the Durga Puja celebrations throughout the nation has reached 5.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina promised to carry to justice the culprits behind the violence, saying anybody concerned within the assaults on Hindu temples and Durga Puja venues in Comilla is not going to be spared.
“The incidents in Comilla are being completely investigated. No one shall be spared. It does not matter which faith they belong to. They are going to be hunted down and punished,” she stated whereas exchanging greetings with the Hindu neighborhood members throughout an occasion at Dhakeshwari Nationwide Temple in Dhaka on the event of Durga Puja.
The violence had erupted after an alleged blasphemy incident at a Durga Puja pavilion in Cumilla, bordering Chandpur and about 100 kms from Dhaka, after which a probe was launched.
Sporadic clashes continued on Friday between police and spiritual hardliners whereas excessive right-wing Islamic Shashontantra Andolon on Saturday took out a giant procession in downtown Dhaka’s Purana Paltan space protesting what they referred to as as “demeaning of the “Holy Quran”.
The armed police geared up with water cannons and different riot gear saved a pointy vigil from a detailed proximity.
The Durga Puja celebrations concluded with out the standard Bijoya Dashami procession because of the Covid-19 scenario.
In addition to, the idols had been immersed on Friday at round 4pm as an alternative of 12pm out of respect for the Jumma prayers of the bulk Muslim neighborhood, the Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported.
As sporadic assaults and vandalism reported on Friday as nicely, authorities issued prohibitory orders within the Noakhali district, banning public gatherings in Chaumuhani municipality from daybreak to nightfall on Saturday, it stated.
The mob attacked, vandalised and looted minority households, companies, and a number of other temples in Chaumuhani throughout their march, the report stated quoting the police.
The federal government and regulation enforcement companies described the incidents as “deliberate” with the goal of destabilising the nation.
In Sylhet, locals and the police on Friday foiled tried vandalism at two pavilions within the metropolis’s Hawlader Para space. The attackers hurled bricks on the pavilions in addition to adjoining homes, the report stated.
Greater than 150 individuals, brandishing sharp-edged weapons, took out a march and tried to assault the Kalibari pavilion. Nonetheless, because the devotees protested, the mob marched in the direction of the Hawladar Para space and broke the gate of one other pavilion, the report stated.
In line with the police, Fb and YouTube had been largely used to instigate communal tensions whereas experiences stated that the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Fee (BTRC) recognized greater than 100 identities which had been used to unfold instigative feedback.
Cell phone operators stated that beneath the BTRC directives, they stopped the 3G and 4G web connectivity for 12 hours on Friday which the authorities stated had been carried out resulting from “unavoidable causes”.
“The violence seemed to be a part of a plot in opposition to interfaith concord and the perpetrators had been concerned in an identical incidents previously as nicely,” stated Colonel KM Azad of RAB that pulls males from the Military and different armed forces together with the police.
“We’re getting ready to take stringent authorized actions and arrest a few of them very quickly,” he stated.