DHAKA: Train, Temples Attacked As Bangladesh Clashes Spread After PM Modi Visit

DHAKA: Hundreds of members of a hardline
Islamist group attacked Hindu temples and a train in eastern Bangladesh last
week, the police and a local journalist said, as violence spread across the
country in the wake of a visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Local
police and doctors have said at least 11 protesters have been killed since
Friday in clashes with police during demonstrations organised by Islamist
groups against PM Modi’s visit. Violence has raged on since PM Modi’s departure
as anger has swelled over the deaths.

PM Modi
arrived in Dhaka on Friday to mark the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh’s
nationhood, and he left on Saturday after gifting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
some 12 lakh COVID-19 vaccine shots.

The
protesters accuse PM Modi of discriminatory policies against Muslims in India.

On
Friday, dozens of people were injured in the densely-populated capital Dhaka as
police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters.

Thousands
of protesters marched down streets across Bangladesh on Sunday.

Supporters
with the Hefazat-e-Islam group attacked a train in the eastern district of
Brahmanbaria, resulting in 10 people being injured, a police official said.

“They
attacked the train and damaged its engine room and almost all the coaches,”
the official told Reuters, declining to be named as he was not authorised to
speak to the media.

Several
government offices, including the land office and a government-sponsored music
academy, were set on fire and several Hindu temples were also attacked, said
Javed Rahim, a journalist in Brahmanbaria town.

“We
are in extreme fear and feeling really helpless,” Rahim told Reuters by
telephone, adding: “Even the press club was attacked, leaving many
injured, including the press club president.”

One
protester, who sustained an injury during Saturday’s clash in Brahmanbaria,
died on Sunday, a doctor said.

Islamist
demonstrators also set alight two buses in the western district of Rajshahi on
Sunday, while hundreds of protesters clashed with police in several places,
pelting them with stones, three police sources in three districts said.

Protesters
used electric poles, timber and sand bags to block roads and police retaliated
with rubber bullets and tear gas, leaving dozens injured in Narayanganj, just
outside the capital, Dhaka, one police official said.

Protesters
also vandalised and burned several buses in Dhaka as they blocked many roads, a
police official said.

The
protests have flared into wider demonstrations against police killings, and the
Hefazat-e-Islam enforced a nationwide strike on Sunday.

“Police
opened fire on our peaceful supporters,” Hefazat-e-Islam’s organising
secretary Azizul Haque told a rally. “We will not let the blood of our
brothers go in vain.”