Bangladesh: 20 Hindu homes torched, over 60 vandalised over communal violence

As the police stood guard around the man's home, the attackers set fire to other homes nearby, a report said.  

Dhaka: At least 20 homes belonging to Hindus and 66 houses were vandalised in a village about 255 km from capital city Dhaka on Sunday, with communal tensions in Bangladesh simmering amid the Durga Puja attacks.

An angry mob’s violence was originally triggered by a social media post.

The arson attack happened late on Sunday at a village about 255 km from capital city Dhaka, the bdnews24.com reported.

The police rushed to a colony of fishermen as tension mounted over a rumour that a young Hindu man from the village had "dishonoured religion" in a Facebook post, the report quoted district's superintendent of police Mohammad Qamruzzaman as saying.

As the police stood guard around the man's home, the attackers set fire to other homes nearby, the report said.

This comes just days after an alleged incident of the desecration of the Quran at a Durga Puja pavilion in Comilla on October 13.

According to PTI, there were no immediate reports of casualties.

As many as 52 suspects have been arrested while a manhunt was launched for more suspects under a “combing operation” in collaboration with other security forces, a police official said.

In a separate report, the bdnews24.com, quoting the prominent rights group in Bangladesh Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), said that as many as 3,679 attacks on the minority Hindu community took place between January 2013 and September this year.

The attacks included vandalism of and setting fire to 559 houses and 442 shops and businesses of the Hindu community, it said. At least 1,678 cases of vandalism and arson attacks on Hindu temples, idols and places of worship were also reported in the same period, it said. While 11 citizens from the Hindu community have died in these incidents, another 862 were injured, the report said.