Another Islamist attack happened at Gobindapur village in Chehel Gazi Union in the Dinajpur District of Bangladesh. This Islamist attack and vandalism happened on October 24 at Shamshan Kali Mandir in Gobindapur village of Dinajpur district. The attackers had destroyed the Maa Kali vigraha and looted several valuable items from the temple.
According to the local Hindus and Sojasapta2’s report, every year a fair is arranged at the time of Kali puja. Recently, some local Islamist miscreants have demanded 5,000 Takas in ‘protection money,’ claiming that the puja committee set up a gambling house during the fair. Getting scared of the threats, the puja committee gave the Islamist miscreants 3,000 Takas.
But the Islamist miscreants demanded the rest of the amount. The puja committee said they were unable to pay that. Having received that reply, the Islamists got angry and started attacking the temple. During the attack, the Islamist attackers beat the local Hindus and vandalised the Maa Kali vigraha of the temple. Apart from that, they looted various valuables from the temple.
When the news of the attack spread in the locality, other local Hindus rushed to the temple and found the Maa Kali vigraha broken and lying upside down. The local Hindus burst into tears after seeing that. Later, angry Hindus blocked the Dinajpur-Rangpur National Highway in protest against the incident. The siege lasted till late at night.
After receiving the news, Kotwali Police Officer Tanvirul Islam and the local leadership of the Puja Celebration Parishad rushed to the spot. The local Hindus lifted the blockade around 2.30 am when they were promised to take necessary action against the attackers.
Later, on October 25, the police arrested four suspected Islamist criminals. The arrested persons are Belal Uddin (25) son of Sujat Ali of the Hobi Chairmanpara area of Chehelgazi Union, Tushar (20) son of Lutfar Rahman of Barail village of the same Upazila, Rocky Ahmed (30) son of Hashem Ali of the same area, and Asaduzzaman, son of Abul Hossain of Muzayedpur village of the same Upazila.
Previously, in the same Dinajpur district, Santal Hindu houses were occupied by the local Islamist families. These houses were allocated to the Santal Hindus by the government of Bangladesh. The Santal Hindu community is now spending their days in other people’s backyards due to house encroachment. The area around Fazilpur in Dinajpur Sadar Upazila became quite noisy around this incident. The victim Santals complained that some Islamist families of the local Chilmon Khan Dighi had occupied their houses. This led to a clash between the two communities.
