Bangladesh: 14 Hindu temples attacked, idols destroyed or dumped in ponds in 'orchestrated' crime

Over a dozen Hindu temples were vandalised in Bangladesh in a series of orchestrated attacks, police said on 5 February 2023. 14 Hindu temples were attacked in northwestern Bangladesh, with some idols being destroyed, while others were found in pond waters near temple sites.

Police said that the attacks took place on the intervening night of 4 and 5 February in several villages. Authorities called it a conspiracy to disturb the peace and communal harmony and promised action against the culprits.

"Unidentified people carried out the attacks under the cover of darkness, vandalising idols in 14 temples in three unions (lowest local government tier)," said Bidyanath Barman, a Hindu community leader at Baliadangi) “upazila” or “sub-district” in Thakurgaon. Barman, the general secretary of the upazila’s Puja Celebration Council, said some of the idols were destroyed while some were found in pond waters along the temple sites.

"We are in the dark about their (culprits) identity but we want to bring them to justice after investigations,” Barman said.

The Hindu community leader and union parishad chairman Samar Chattarjee said the region was always known to be an area of excellent interfaith harmony as “no such heinous incident took place here in the past”. “The (majority) Muslim community does not have any dispute with us (Hindus)… we just cannot understand who could be these culprits,” he said.

(With PTI inputs)

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