Expelled BCL leader, who masterminded Pirganj communal attack, arrested
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) yesterday arrested two people, including one of the masterminds behind the attack on Hindu houses and shops in Rangpur's Pirganj upazila.
Md Shaikat Mandal (24) and his accomplice Md Robiul Islam (36) were arrested during a raid in Tongi of Gazipur yesterday, said Khandaker Al Moin, Rab's Legal and Media wing director in a media briefing today.
Shaikat, son of Rashedul Haque, was a vice president of philosophy department unit of Bangladesh Chhatra League in Rangpur Carmichael College.
A day after the attack, the BCL unit expelled Saikat from the organisation on October 18 for breaching the organisation's discipline.
During the primary interrogation, the arrestees said they gathered the attackers through spreading propaganda on social media and through loudspeaker to create chaos and destroy communal harmony, the Rab director said in the briefing
Shaikat, a degree student of a college in Rangpur, provoked locals on social media to take part in the attacks and under his leadership, several people took part in the vandalism and looting and arson attacks on the houses of Hindus.
"He used to share various provocative and misleading posts in social media at different times," said the Rab official.
Both of them went into hiding after the incident, he said.
The communal attack in Pirganj ensued due to personal conflict between already arrested -- Poritosh Sarkar and Uzzal -- of Borokarimpur, Rab director said.
Uzzal sent a photo to Poritosh, hurting his religious sentiment. In replay, Poritosh made a derogatory Facebook status demeaning the holy Kaaba, he said.
Moin said Uzzal screen-grabbed the Poritosh's post before the latter took it down from the Facebook. Later, Shaikat spread it through his Facebook page, having around 3,000 followers, to instigate people to carry out the attacks.
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