COX'S BAZAR — Hundreds of members of a
hardline Islamist group attacked Hindu temples and a train in eastern
Bangladesh on Sunday, police and a local journalist said, as violence spread
across the country in the wake of a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra
Modi.
اضافة اعلان
At least 10 protesters were killed in clashes with
police during demonstrations organized by Islamist groups against the Indian
leader's visit, and violence raged on after his departure as anger swelled over
the deaths.
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 1.2 million COVID-19 vaccine shots.
The Islamist groups accuse Modi of discriminating against
minority Muslims in Hindu-majority India and violence escalated rapidly during
his visit.
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 Islamist activists marched down the streets of
Chittagong and Dhaka on Saturday in protest.
On Sunday, activists with the Hefazat-e-Islam group
attacked a train in the eastern district of Brahmanbaria, resulting in ten
people being injured.
"They attacked the train and damaged its engine
room and almost all the coaches," one police official told Reuters,
declining to be named as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
“Brahmanbaria is burning. Various government offices
were set on fire indiscriminately. Even the press club was attacked and many
injured, including the press club president. We are in extreme fear and feeling
really helpless,” Javed Rahim, a journalist in Brahmanbaria, told Reuters.
Several Hindu temples in the town were also
attacked, he said.
Islamist activists allegedly also set alight two
buses in the western district of Rajshahi on Sunday, while hundreds of
protesters clashed with police in Narayanganj, pelting them with stones, police
said.
Protesters used timber and sand bags to block roads,
as police retaliated with rubber bullets and tear gas, leaving dozens injured
in Narayanganj, just outside the capital. The protests sparked by Modi's visit
have since flared into wider demonstrations against police, and the
Hefazat-e-Islam enforced a nationwide strike on Sunday.
"Police opened fire on our peaceful supporters,"
Hefazat-e-Islam’s organizing secretary Azizul Haque told a rally in Chittagong
on Saturday. "We will not let the blood of our brothers go in vain."
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