Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Thursday said some enthusiastic media and individuals are unfortunately spreading cooked-up stories of deaths and rapes on religious minorities basically to embarrass the Sheikh Hasina government that is committed to religious harmony. He said all the perpetrators have been arrested and are now in police custody while the houses that were burned down have been rebuilt and everyone got compensation. “Till to-date six people died during recent religious violence,” Dr Momen said in a message shared with the media. Read: HC orders judicial probe into attacks on Hindus in 6 districts Among the dead, he said, four are Muslims and they were killed by police when they tried to torch the houses of the Hindu community, and two Hindus died - one a normal death and another by drowning. “None was raped and not a single Mandir was torched or destroyed. However, a couple of deities or Goddesses were vandalized,” he said. In recent years, Dr Momen said, there has been a proliferation of Puja venues in every place, including individual houses, as the government pays money for every Puja venue and there is a shortage of police personnel to monitor all of them on a 24/7 days a week. Also read: Communal violence: Citizens demand exemplary punishment for perpetrators To avoid such incidents of abuse, he said, the Puja organizers should not leave their venues unattended. The Foreign Minister said a drug-addict person reportedly left a copy of the Holy Quran near the foot of a deity when there was no worshipper or organizer at the Puja venue and another person took a photo of it and put it up on the social media Facebook that sparked outrage leading to vandalism and ransacking.

Police arrested a man from Lalmonirhat's Patgram upazila for beating Shadunnabi Jewel to death and torching his body after accusing him of disrespecting the holy Quran.