The attacks on several Hindu temples in Bangladesh were carried out under a well orchestrated plan aimed at grabbing lands of the minority community, the country’s top rights body said on Wednesday.
The statutory National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said their initial investigation into the attacks on several Hindu temples and households in the central Brahmanbarhia district’s Nasirnagar indicated that they were planned.
“Our investigation is still under way but our initial findings suggest that an organised quarter carried out the attacks in a pre-planned manner,” Enamul Haque Chowdhury, NHRC member and chief of a three-member fact-finding committee of the rights panel, told PTI.
He said near simultaneous attacks were carried out at several temples and Hindu households at different locations in Nasirnagar area to render police helpless.
“The attack was carried out to drive away the Hindus from their land,” Mr. Chowdhury told The Daily Star.
Several hundred people had attacked and ransacked at least 15 Hindu temples and over 20 households in Nasirnagar after a Facebook post deemed offensive to Islam sparked massive outrage in the nation.
Brahmanbaria’s police superintend Mizanur Rahman had said that police had arrested nine people who seemed to be directly linked to the attacks.
PTI