COX’S BAZAR: Hundreds of protesters in Bangladesh attacked Hindu templesand a train in eastern Bangladesh on Sunday, police and a local journalistsaid, as violence spread across the country in the wake of a visit by theIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
At least 10 protesters were killed in clashes with police duringdemonstrations organised by different groups against the Indian leader’svisit, and violence raged on after his departure as anger swelled over thedeaths.
Modi arrived in Dhaka on Friday to mark the 50th anniversary ofBangladesh’s nationhood, and he left on Saturday after gifting PrimeMinister Sheikh Hasina some 1.2 million COVID-19 vaccine shots.
Protesters accuse Modi of discriminating against minority Muslims inHindu-majority India and violence escalated rapidly during his visit.
On Friday, dozens of people were injured in the densely-populated capitalDhaka as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters. Thousandsof activists marched down the streets of Chittagong and Dhaka on Saturdayin protest.
On Sunday, activists of the Hefazat-e-Islam group attacked a train in theeastern district of Brahmanbaria, resulting in ten people being injured.
“They attacked the train and damaged its engine room and almost all thecoaches,” one police official told Reuters, declining to be named as he wasnot authorised to speak to the media.
“Brahmanbaria is burning. Various government offices were set on fireindiscriminately. Even the press club was attacked and many injured,including the press club president. We are in extreme fear and feelingreally helpless,” Javed Rahim, a journalist in the Brahmanbaria town, toldReuters by phone.
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Several Hindu temples in the town were also attacked, he said.
Activists allegedly also set alight two buses in the western district ofRajshahi on Sunday, while hundreds of protesters clashed with police inNarayanganj, pelting them with stones, police said.
Protesters used timber and sandbags to block roads, as police retaliatedwith rubber bullets and tear gas, leaving dozens injured in Narayanganj,just outside the capital, Dhaka.
The protests sparked by Modi’s visit have since flared into widerdemonstrations against police killings, and the Hefazat-e-Islam enforced anationwide strike on Sunday.
“Police opened fire on our peaceful supporters,” Hefazat-e-Islam’sorganising secretary Azizul Haque told a rally in Chittagong on Saturday.“We will not let the blood of our brothers go in vain.”
