In the wee hours of Saturday (31st May), extremists razed and burnt down a Hindu temple and vandalised the idol of Goddess Kali. The incident occurred in Salimpur Union in Sitakunda Upazila in Chittagong District of Bangladesh.
According to reports, the extremists laid siege to the ‘Sarbajanin Sri Sri Mahasamshan Kali Mandir’ at about 3 am on Saturday and destroyed the semi-pucca temple.
They vandalised the idol of Goddess Kali and desecrated pictures of other deities. Thereafter, the extremists set the Hindu temple on fire and burnt it down to ashes.
They then built a temporary boundary wall to encroach upon the land. On learning about the matter the following morning, the temple authorities notified the police.
An official complaint was filed on Sunday (1st June) afternoon by temple committee president Amar Majumder.
However, the police tried to downplay the targeted hate crime as a ‘land dispute.’
While speaking to the media, Sitakunda Police Station OC Mohammed Mojibur Rahman claimed, “The temple was constructed on government land. I am of the view that the incident occurred due to a land dispute with the owner of a nearby land.”
On 22nd May, a Muslim mob carried out arson attacks on Hindu homes in Dahar Mashihati village in Abhaynagar upazila in Jessore district of Bangladesh. OpIndia had explained how Muhammad Yunus vindicated our report but desperately attempted to whitewash the torture and systematic communal violence in Jessore.
