Houses of Hindu community vandalised, torched in Cumilla

A group of miscreants on Sunday afternoon vandalised and torched 6 households of the Hindu community in Cumilla’s Muradnagar upazila.

The house of local union parishad chairman Bonkumar Shib was also torched by the mob.

The incident took place at the Korbanpur village in Purbadhoir Purba union in the upazila centering a rumour of hurting religious sentiment on Facebook.

A mobile court on Sunday night punished five people over the incident.

The local administration also imposed Section 144 in neighboring Andikot union till Monday evening centering a protest rally.

Cumilla’s deputy commissioner Md Abul Fazal Mir and superintendent of police Syed Nurul Islam visited the place.

As of 9:30pm Monday, three people of the Hindu community filed a case in this connection with Bangra Bazar police station accusing some 250 unidentified people.

Earlier on Saturday night, police arrested Shankar Debnath, 54, and Anil Bhowmik, 21, of Korbanpur village for making comments on Facebook. They were sued under the digital security act and sent to jail on Sunday.

Police on Sunday afternoon organised a solidarity meeting at Korbanpur GM High School to defuse tensions prevailing in the locality. During the meeting, some people torched Shankar Debnath’s house and later Bonkumar Shib’s house.

Six houses were gutted but no one was injured.

UP chairman Bonkumar said, “They set my house on fire.”

Officer in charge Bangra Bazar police station Qamruzzaman Talukder said two people were arrested through mobile phone tracking.

Three cases have been filed accusing 91,85 and 87 people respectively and more cases are underway, the OC said.

Cumilla DC Abul Fazal Mir said, “Some households including that of Korbanpur UP chairman have been gutted. The administration would take proper steps over the incident. We won’t tolerate any instigation.”