20 Hindu homes set on fire in Bangladesh

Dhaka: Sixty six houses were vandalised and at least 20 homes of Hindus were set on fire in Bangladesh over an alleged blasphemous social media post amid protests by the minority community against incidents of temple vandalism during the Durga Puja last week, media reports said today.

The arson attack happened late on Sunday at a village about 255 km from capital city Dhaka, the bdnews24.com reported.

The police rushed to a colony of fishermen as tension mounted over a rumour that a young Hindu man from the village had "dishonoured religion" in a Facebook post, the report quoted district's superintendent of police Mohammad Qamruzzaman as saying. As the police stood guard around the man's home, the attackers set fire to other homes nearby, the report said.

The Fire Service Control Room said that their report from the scene indicates that 29 residential houses, two kitchens, two barns and 20 haystacks belonging to 15 different people were torched in Majhipara, adding that an "unruly crowd" has been identified as the cause of fire.

The arson comes at a time when there is a rising communal tension over an alleged incident of blasphemy at a Durga Puja venue in Cumilla in Bangladesh's Chittagong division which led to attacks on Hindu temples and clashes between vandals and the police in Cumilla, Chandpur, Chattogram, Cox's Bazar, Bandarban, Moulvibazar, Gazipur, Chapainawabganj, Feni and other districts.