Minorities call for hunger strike in Bangladesh

‘Temples, businesses vandalised, robbed’

October 17, 2021 10:29 pm | Updated 10:29 pm IST - Dhaka

A Hindu temple has been vandalised in Bangladesh in a fresh case of communal unrest amid days of violence and protests over alleged blasphemy, prompting a minority group to announce a countrywide hunger strike, media reports said on Sunday.

Hindu-owned temples and shops in Feni, about 157 km from the country’s capital, have been vandalised and robbed during fresh clashes on Saturday, which broke out after an attack on demonstrators who were protesting against the attacks on Durga Puja venues in several places in Bangladesh, the Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported.

The clashes left at least 40 people, including the officer in-charge Nizamuddin of Feni Model Police Station, injured, it said.

On Saturday night, authorities deployed additional police forces and the paramilitary force — Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), after several temples and businesses were vandalised and robbed, the report said.

Meanwhile in Chittagong, the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council announced a sit-in and hunger strike from October 23.

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