Hindu family's house torched in Bangladesh hours after Yunus's assurance: Report

Dhaka: Arsonists torched a house belonging to a Hindu family with no political affiliation in northwest Bangladesh, a media report said on Wednesday, in the latest incident of targeted attacks on the minority community after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led government.

The incident in Farabari Mandirpara village in Akcha union under Thakurgaon Sadar upazila took place on Tuesday evening, hours after Chief Advisor to the interim government Yunus Muhammad assured the distressed minority community that his government would punish the perpetrators.

The targeted arson incident also came on the same day when the Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance claimed that the minority community faced attacks and threats in 278 locations across 48 districts since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led government on August 5 and termed it as an “assault on the Hindu religion.”

Unidentified individuals set fire to Kaleshwar Barman's house around 7:30 pm on Tuesday in Farabari Mandirpara village in Akcha union under Thakurgaon Sadar upazila, Subrata Kumar Barman, chairman of Akcha Union Parishad (UP), told newspaper The Daily Star.

Local people quickly responded and managed to control the fire, and the house's occupants were able to escape unharmed, he said.

The UP chairman said Kaleshwar Barman had no political affiliation.

ABM Firoz Waheed, Officer-in-Charge of Thakurgaon Police Station, said: “Police visited the spot the same night, and an investigation is ongoing to identify the perpetrators.” The Daily Star report said that a similar incident had happened a few days earlier in Nimbari Kamarpara village of the same Union when Ananta Barman's house was burned down, leaving all valuables destroyed.

Rabin Roy, a resident of Farabari, said people from the Hindu community are living in fear after these incidents started following the fall of the former government.

Incidentally, Thakurgaon district is the same place from where hundreds of Hindus had tried to unsuccessfully cross over to India – the India-Bangladesh border running along the northwestern edge – on August 6 and 7, immediately after deposed prime minister Hasina fled to India and a fresh round of violence had engulfed the country.

On Tuesday, Yunus, who took charge as the Chief Advisor of the interim government last week, amid ongoing violence and vandalism, visited the Dhakeshwari temple – one of the prominent Shakti peethas – in Dhaka and said each one's rights should be ensured and blamed “institutional decay” for the predicament that his country has fallen into.

Yunus reached out to the distressed Hindu community as he visited the centuries-old temple. He urged the people to “exercise patience” and assured them that his government would punish those who attacked the minority members.