Attacks on Hindus: Good Samaritans outnumbered

When religious zealots were rampaging through Hindu houses and temples in Brahmanbaria's Nasirnagar on Sunday, some Muslims in the upazila tried to put up a resistance against the criminals.

However, all their efforts went in vain as the attackers outnumbered them.

Many Muslim families also gave shelter to their Hindu neighbours to save them from the attackers, several local Hindus told The Daily Star. 

Two Muslim men tried to protect the Goura Temple in Nasirnagar union after they heard about the imminent attack on it. They, however, were hit with sticks by some of the attackers, Anindo Das, a guard of the temple, told The Daily Star on Sunday.

Mina Rani Das, 50, from Nomoshudro Para area, said she along with her daughter rushed to a nearby house of a Muslim family who welcomed and gave them shelter.

Armed with sticks and sharp weapons, around 200 religious bigots attacked at least five temples, and vandalised and looted about 100 Hindu houses in several localities in Nasirnagar over a Facebook post from the account of Rasraj Das, 27. Rasraj is in jail now in a case filed over the post.

The attackers also beat up more than 100 people. Many who shoved the attackers while trying to stop them were injured, said locals.

Abdur Rahim, headmaster of Ashutosh Pilot High School Rahim, tried to stop the attackers from looting a rich Hindu family in Dutta Bari area and he succeeded, said Kajal Dutta, head of that family.

However, the attackers pushed him aside and vandalised a large temple in that area later.

Abdur Rahim said such an attack was new in Nasirnagar.

“I never saw any such religious intolerance towards our Hindu brothers or attack on them before,” he added.

Moulvi Rezaul Karim, a local, suffered injuries in his leg as the attackers threw brick chips at him when he tried to stop them from vandalising a Hindu house in the same area, said locals.

Another youth -- Sharifuzzaman Chowdhury Suman, a dealer of a mobile company -- was among the Muslims who came forward to help the Hindus that day.

“As soon as I heard about the attack, I rushed to several areas where Hindus live. I called the police but unfortunately, they did not respond on time,” he said.

Victims and locals had said Sunday's attacks on the Hindus could have been averted had the local administration and police acted promptly and taken preventive measures.

Tensions had been brewing in the area since Saturday, as two Islamist groups -- Touhidi Janata and Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat -- called two protest rallies for Sunday over the local Hindu youth's alleged Facebook post “hurting religious sentiment of the Muslims,” they say.

But neither the law enforcement agencies nor the administration took the matter seriously. They didn't take steps to ward off any untoward incident, a number of victims and locals told this correspondent after the synchronised attack.