Large protests broke out in Bangladesh capital Dhaka on Monday as hundreds of people called for an end to religious violence that has gripped the country for four days, leaving two dead and several injured.
The violence began on October 15, when hundreds of Muslims protested in the southeastern Noakhali district over an allegedly blasphemous incident.
Mohammed Shahidul Islam, the police chief in Noakhali, told newsmen that two Hindu men died following that protest.
“There is some confusion about whether they died due to the unlawful assembly, or otherwise,” Islam said. He said the police are investigating the deaths. “The protestors were miscreants actually, that is all we can say.”
It is also being reported that several Hindu religious sites were attacked and vandalised in recent days.
Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan has said that these attacks were aimed at destroying the communal harmony in Bangladesh.
Hindus make up around 10 percent of the Muslim-majority country’s population.
“No incident has been reported since Saturday night. Our security forces are working patiently based on intelligence information,” Khan told the news agency ANI.
Police have also said that unidentified “miscreants” attacked some homes in the Rangpur city on Monday.
The recent bout of unrest is among the worst experienced in Bangladesh since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party came to power there in 2009.
The violence began on October 15, when hundreds of Muslims protested in the southeastern Noakhali district over an allegedly blasphemous incident.
Mohammed Shahidul Islam, the police chief in Noakhali, told newsmen that two Hindu men died following that protest.
“There is some confusion about whether they died due to the unlawful assembly, or otherwise,” Islam said. He said the police are investigating the deaths. “The protestors were miscreants actually, that is all we can say.”
It is also being reported that several Hindu religious sites were attacked and vandalised in recent days.
Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan has said that these attacks were aimed at destroying the communal harmony in Bangladesh.
Hindus make up around 10 percent of the Muslim-majority country’s population.
“No incident has been reported since Saturday night. Our security forces are working patiently based on intelligence information,” Khan told the news agency ANI.
Police have also said that unidentified “miscreants” attacked some homes in the Rangpur city on Monday.
The recent bout of unrest is among the worst experienced in Bangladesh since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party came to power there in 2009.