DHAKA, Bangladesh, March 9 (ANI): Over the past week in Bangladesh, two Hindu men were killed in separate incidents, while four people, including a priest, were injured after a crude bomb exploded inside a temple, according to the rights group Bangladesh Jatio Hindu Mohajote (Bangladesh National Grand Alliance).
The group said the killings occurred in Bogura and Cox’s Bazar on March 6 and March 7, while crude bombs were thrown at a Hindu temple in Cumilla city during a puja on March 8, triggering panic among worshippers.
“On March 7 at approximately 6:30 p.m., during the worship of Shani Dev at a temple in the South Thakurpara area of Cumilla city, communal terrorists detonated crude bombs. The temple priest and four others were seriously injured,” Bangladesh Jatio Hindu Mohajote said in a statement.
A report by Bangladeshi news outlet The Daily Star confirmed details of the attack at Kaligach Tala Kali Mandir. Touhidul Anwar, officer-in-charge of Kotwali Model Police Station, said priest Keshob Chakraborty, along with two others, received treatment at a hospital.
Sajol Kumar Chanda, president of the temple committee, said the explosion occurred during the religious ceremony. CCTV footage reportedly showed a masked individual entering the temple shortly before the blast and leaving a bag behind.
Describing the incident, injured priest Keshob Chakraborty told The Daily Star, “After the bomb explosion, a white object fell in front of me. Later, seeing smoke, others told me it was a bomb.”
Witnesses said panic spread across the area following the explosion. After the initial blast, attackers allegedly detonated two more crude bombs near a nearby Buddhist temple and a private office.
Shyamal Krishna, convener of the Metropolitan Puja Celebration Front, visited the site and called for swift action against those responsible. “Those who are trying to disturb the peaceful environment must be arrested quickly,” he said, according to The Daily Star.
Police officials, including Cumilla Superintendent of Police Md. Anisuzzaman, also visited the site after the incident, and a bomb disposal unit was called in to assist with the investigation.
In a statement issued Sunday, Mrityunjoy Kumar Roy, general secretary of Bangladesh Jatio Hindu Mohajote, said that on March 6 at around 9:30 p.m. in Sariakandi, Bogura district, Chayon Rajbhar, 40, was stabbed to death by miscreants over a land dispute. Rajbhar was the director of a local coaching center called “The New Contest.”
The following day, March 7 at around 2 p.m., a Hindu youth named Ganesh Pal, 29, was stabbed to death in Cox’s Bazar town by attackers after he reportedly refused to pay extortion money, the statement said.
The rights group added that a week earlier in the Alankar area of Chattogram city, a Hindu youth named Akash Das was killed for protesting alleged extortion from workers. In the Badurpara Hindu area of Chandanaish upazila in the same district, a 70-year-old man named Chandan Dey was shot dead by armed criminals after resisting cattle theft.
The group has demanded strict legal action, implementation of a zero-tolerance policy, financial assistance for affected families, and the immediate arrest and exemplary punishment of those involved to prevent similar incidents in the future.
In general elections held last month, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies secured a two-thirds majority in parliament, after which Tarique Rahman became the country’s prime minister. (ANI)
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