4 Hindu houses vandalised in Fatikchhari

Police guard a Hindu home in Brindabanpara of Fatickchhari in Chittagong which had been vandalised. Photo: Star

Fear in his eyes, 70-year-old Satyaranjan Dev was sitting on a cot with six women and kids of his family at Fatikchhari Police Station.
He trembled as he recalled the mob attack on his tin-shed semi-pucca house early yesterday.
Around 3:00am, hundreds of stick-wielding people, mostly youths, stormed his house at Brindabanpara village in kanchannagar union under Fatikchhari upazila.

A mob in the early hours of yesterday. Photo: Star

They were looking for his youngest son, Sujan Dev, 21, saying he had posted an “anti-Islam” photo on Facebook.
"But Sujan was not home,” the old man told The Daily Star yesterday afternoon. He could not specify where Sujan was at that time. A student of Nazir Hat College, the youth often stay over with friends or go to his brother's shop in Manikchhari upazila of Khagrachhari.
“Not finding my son, they started vandalising our home and hurling abuse," said Satyaranjan, who has no idea about Facebook but believes his son cannot do anything bad.
On information, police came and rescued the old man, his wife, two daughter-in-laws and three grandchildren and kept them in custody for their safety.
The mob also vandalised three neighbouring houses of Hindus, including Satyaranjan's brother Chittaranjan Dev.
Visiting the village, home to a community of some 30 Hindu families, these correspondents yesterday afternoon saw doors and windows of the houses broken and dozens of police guarding. Rab men were also patrolling the area.
Officer-in-Charge Mofiz Uddin of the police station said cops and BGB members have also been deployed at three Hindu temples in the locality.
Towhidul Islam Babul, councillor of Kanchannagar ward-3, said the attacks seem well-orchestrated to destroy communal harmony in the area.
He said an offensive photo was spread among locals using mobile phone bluetooth since Thursday midnight, saying it was posted online by Sujan. The councillor added that the mob split in two groups attacked the houses.
Jane Alam, general secretary of Kanchannagar Awami League, said, “Somebody might have tagged Sujan the photo on Facebook and later circulated it to spur violence."