A Brahmanbaria court on Thursday sentenced 13 people including a former union parishad chairman to four years in prison in a case over the torching a Hindu temple in a communal violence in Nasirnagar upazila of the district around five years back. Brahmanbaria Chief Judicial Magistrate Mohammad Masud Parvez also fined the defendants Tk 2,000 each, Didarul Alam, inspector of the district court, confirmed the news. The accused--local Awami League leader and former UP Chairman Dewan Atikur Rahman Akhi, Md Mokhles Miah, Md Mofizul Hoque, Khasrul Miah, Nazir Rahman, Md Mahfuz Miah, Idu Miah, Sheikh Md Abdul Ahad, Saiham Rabbi Shyam, Mir Kashem, Anis Miah, Tabarak Reza and Sajeeb Chowdhury are from different areas of the Nasirnagar upazila.   Eight of the 13 accused were present at the court while delivering the judgment. According to the case statement, miscreants vandalised and torched establishments including a temple belonging to the Hindu community in some areas of the upazila after spreading a rumour over a derogatory post on Islam from a Facebook account of one Rosraj Das, a resident of Harinveda village under Haripur union of the upazila, on October 30, 2016. A total of eight cases were filed involving the violence later. The case’s investigating officer later submitted the chargesheet accusing the 13 people. Read more: Cumilla incident aimed at destroying communal harmony: Home Minister After completing all legal procedures, the court handed down the judgment in absence of the five accused on Thursday. Being aggrieved at the verdict, defence lawyer Kamruzzaman Mamun said they would appeal against the verdict. The plaintiffs’ counsel Nazmul Hossain expressed satisfaction over the judgment, saying that the justice has been established through the verdict.    

Conspiracies against Bangladesh are not a new phenomenon. Myriad plots and intrigues have taken place since its birth. The ulterior motive was to prevent Bangladesh from developing as a non-communal state imbued with the spirit of the Liberation War. And the character of the conspirators is clearly perceptible. The communalist forces that opposed the birth of the Bangladesh, have repeatedly tried to change its socio-cultural and political character. The organized clique of communalists with their domestic and international allies has been constantly conspiring against the country. And the level of this conspiracy increased manifold after the trial of the war criminals had started, especially after the execution of their judgments one by one. Despite investing a huge amount of money in employing international lobbyists, when they failed to save the notorious war criminals like Quader Molla, Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, Ali Ahsan Mujahid, Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Motiur Rahman Nizami, they started weaving a web of intrigue against the judges and trial arrangers in particular and the country in general. The conspirators' links have a multi-dimensional trajectory. In their camp can be found people directly aggrieved by the execution of war crimes, the lunatic fringe involved in their communalist and violent politics, and the people and parties, who were wolves in sheep’s clothing. It was the nation’s biggest irony that, they were in power, and still are trying to grab it. The conspirators have reached such an extent that their collaboration with Israel's central intelligence agency called 'Mossad' is now common knowledge. As part of the conspiracy to overthrow the ruling Sheikh Hasina government, they met the high-ranking officials of ‘Mossad’ in Kolkata, Delhi and London. Intelligence sources have preserved the pictorial record of the meetings which first appeared on a website called Jerusalem Online.com. Several other reports published in the newspapers also mentioned the date and time of the meeting of two influential leaders of BNP and Jamaat with the influential Israeli leader and Mossad agent Mendi N Safadi. A video conference with a BNP leader of Bangladesh has been in the limelight. The video footage of the conference has reportedly come to the hands of the detectives on the basis of which an initiative to arrest the person concerned had been taken. Above all, Safadi's assurance of total funding to the government has also been public knowledge. The news of the inclusion of Safadi in the conspiracy is certainly not a light matter to be dismissed. The arrest of 27 expatriate Bangladeshi nationals by Singaporean law enforcement agencies in 2016 for their alleged involvement in militancy-related activities can also be considered as an expression of the conspiracy against Bangladesh. Out of those 27 people arrested in Singapore on charges of terrorism, 26 were forcibly deported back to Bangladesh. The main goal of the radicalized Bangladeshis receiving training in Singapore was to be involved in the armed Jihad ideology of terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), but in reality, when it became a bit too complicated, these brainwashed people planned to carry out Jihad activities in their own country. And they are engaged in the conspiracy to topple the pro-liberation government with Sheikh Hasina at the helm. Read: Aspirations for non-communal Bangladesh not materialized yet: Fakhrul The main objective of the conspirators is to prove Bangladesh as a failed state. If the conspiracy is successful, the western world including the liberal democratic countries and the donors will turn their backs on Bangladesh. India also will turn its back. America will look for a way to establish military dominance in the name of curbing militancy. And Sheikh Hasina's government, being unable to bear so much pressure, may step down. Then, once again, the unexpected course of events will happen. The trial of war criminals will come to a grinding halt. The defeated forces of 1971 and their allies will seize power once again. This is the possible scenario if the conspiracy comes true. The incidents of the killings of the noted bloggers and writers Abhijit Roy, Ananta Vijay Das, Niladri Chattopadhyay and publisher Deepan, Italian citizen Cesar Tabela, Japanese citizen Kunio Hoshi, Shia mosque muezzin in Bogra, the killing in the Tajia procession at Hosseini Dalan, and the killing of the Rajshahi University progressive intellectual – Professor Rezaul Karim Siddiqui – and two gay activists are harrowing examples of plots hatched by the rabid wright-wing fanatics to assert their existence in the country. There is no particular reason to think of this serial killing spree as isolated incidents, even if there are differences in time and place. The killing of progressive people also points to the unbridled dominance of the reactionaries. Islamabad's unsolicited advocacy for the impunity of convicted war criminals can also be regarded as a conspiracy against the sovereignty of Bangladesh. By interfering in the internal affairs of Bangladesh, Pakistan proved that the country, once enemy of Bangladesh, is still an enemy even in the fast-changing world order. Conspiracies are still being hatched up to discredit Sheikh Hasina Government. The World Bank’s cancellation of Padma Bridge loan, US sanctions on the elite anti-crime and anti-terrorism unit Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), and the publication of US State Department’s report on alleged human rights violations in Bangladesh without any prior discussion with the government smack of a conspiracy theory. Indian analysts are also of the opinion that the sequence of events leading to violence during Durga Puja celebrations is part of a larger conspiracy to destabilize Sheikh Hasina government. Besides, the creation of so-called 1/11, Professor Yunus’ all-out effort to form a political party, quite unbecoming to a Nobel Laureate, the British Jewish journalist David Bergman’s nose poking into Bangladesh’s internal affairs, the organized smear campaign by hired hands are acts of criminal conspiracy. Read: Safe Digital Space: AUW, UNDP to promote intercommunal, religious harmony If not properly countered, these conspiracies can pose serious threats to the very existence of our secular Bangladesh. The government should identify the crux of the problem and realize the urgency of the matter. There is no question about Sheikh Hasina’s success in the politics of development. Now it's time to see how successful she becomes in suppressing the conspiracy against the country. Dr. Rashid Askari: Bilingual writer, academic, translator and former vice chancellor, Islamic University, Kushtia, Bangladesh. Email: [email protected]

Authorities in Cumilla have placed tighter security measures this year to help celebrate the Durga Puja peacefully, following last year’s violence in the district that spilled over into other regions of the country, officials say. Cumilla Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Kamrul Hasan said that they deployed Ansar members to guard the puja mandaps round the clock while additional members of police, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) have been patrolling the celebration sites. He said they will prevent any attempt to destabilise the communal harmony in the district. Read: Dinajpur murder protest: No justice, No Puja celebration! He also said that this year, organisers set up a mandap in the Nanua Dighir Par area where violence broke out in October 2021 after a copy of the holy Quran was found there. On October 13 last year, a Muslim man reportedly placed a copy of the Quran on the lap of an idol at the mandap in Cumilla while another suspect, also a Muslim man, called 999 helpline reporting the "desecration of the holy book", according to police statement.

Authorities in New Delhi stopped a demolition drive in a Muslim-dominated neighborhood after hundreds of residents and a number of opposition party workers gathered in protest Monday. No buildings were razed down before the bulldozers retreated. Anti-Muslim sentiment and attacks have risen across India in the past month, including stone throwing between Hindu and Muslim groups during religious processions, followed by demolition drives in a few states where many Muslim-owned properties were razed down by local authorities. Also read: India’s Muslims mark Eid ul-Fitr amid community violence This was most recently seen last month in a northwest neighborhood in New Delhi where bulldozers destroyed several Muslim properties before the Supreme Court halted the drive. The demolitions were carried out days after communal violence there left several injured and sparked arrests. Amid heavy police presence Monday, bulldozers arrived in Shaheen Bagh, a neighborhood that in 2020 became a site of intense protest after the Parliament passed a controversial bill the previous year that amended the country's citizenship law. The new law would fast-track naturalization for persecuted religious minorities from some neighboring Islamic countries, but excludes Muslims, sparking many to call it discriminatory. It unleashed months of demonstrations from across India and Shaheen Bagh quickly became a symbol of the resistance, with the protests there led by a peaceful sit-in by Muslim women along a highway that passed through the neighborhood. Officials have said these demolition drives target illegal buildings and not any particular religious group. But critics argue such moves are the latest attempt to harass and marginalize Muslims, who are 14% of India’s 1.4 billion population, and point to a pattern of rising religious polarization under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. As the bulldozers drove away, Mohammed Niyaz, a 47-year-old resident in the neighborhood, called it “vote-bank politics” intended to divide the Hindu and Muslim communities. Also read: Extreme heatwave batters millions in India, Pakistan Residents in Shaheen Bagh also questioned the timing of the move to bring in bulldozers, saying many buildings in the neighborhood have existed for decades with no interference from local authorities. Previously, officials termed the recent demolition drives as “routine exercises” to bring down illegal properties.

As Bangladesh prepared for the largest religious festival of the Hindu community earlier this month, communal violence spread in several parts of the country after news emerged on social media about the alleged desecration of the Quran at a Durga Puja site in Cumilla. The recent incident and its ripple effects elsewhere have resulted in insecurity, and frustration among Hindus who make up 10 per cent of Bangladesh's population, suggesting that the road to non-communalism and pluralism is still far away for Bangladesh. Although security was heightened across the country, Bangladesh saw spates of communal violence, which led to at least eight deaths, scores of injuries, and thousands of arrests during the puja celebration.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Sunday alleged that there is no doubt that the government incited the recent communal violence to make political gains. “Let there be no doubt the government carried out the communal incidents through its agents. Awami League tried to make political gains with it,” he said. Speaking at a roundtable discussion, the BNP leader also said there was surely a political motive behind the communal violence centring Durga Puja. “Those who have been illegally staying in power by force did it to perpetuate their power and win the game in the name of the next election.” Nari O Shishu Odhikar Forum, a platform of BNP, arranged the programme on communal violence at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity (DRU). Read: Now ‘extreme anarchy’ everywhere: Fakhrul Fakhrul said their party’s two committees formed over the communal attacks visited the violence-hit areas and carried out an investigation into the incidents. “We’ve no doubt that the government is solely responsible for the violence.” He also said the government carried out communal incidents to shift the blame on BNP and thus divert people’s attention to a different direction from the ongoing movement on different issues. The BNP leader said a ‘mentally imbalanced’ man was used in a planned way to keep the holy Quran at a puja mandap in Cumilla and then Muslims were provoked to indulge in violence by circulating that Islam was attacked and ruined. “Police also opened fire in Hajiganj of Chandpur. So, it’s clear that the government incited the violence.” He said two Chhatra League leaders--Saikat Mandal and Md Robiul Islam--led the arson attacks on Hindu houses in Rangpur in the presence of police. Fakhrul said the leaders of Awami League and its associate bodies were involved in all communal incidents under the rule of the current government. “But none was punished and brought under trial. They (AL) want to use communal incidents as their weapons to resist and suppress those who have been in a movement to restore democracy and people’s voting rights.” He said the country has been facing political instability and violence since 2012 as the government annulled the caretaker government system to cement its power. “We would like to clearly say that no election can be held in a fair and credible manner under Awami League. Lack of democracy is the main cause behind all the problems in Bangladesh. We must restore democracy. Or else, we won’t get rid of the crisis,” the BNP leader said. Read:Govt out to clear election field: Fakhrul He said the country’s majority of people now want a change in power. “But the youths should come forward first to bring that change. The political parties must play their role, but the youths will have to work as the vanguard of the political forces.” He said those who are destroying communal harmony in Bangladesh are working very cleverly to obliterate democracy and keep a party in power permanently. “So, we must have a goal to establish a pro-people government through a credible and acceptable election.” Stating that their party has been on a movement to restore democracy, he said they are confident about the success as the people of this country never got defeated in the past. “We believe we’ll be able to reach our target of building a democratic society and state through our movement and struggle by uniting people. We’ll surely turn victorious,” he added.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Saturday said all those who instigated communal violence and carried out attacks in different parts of the country, including Cumilla, have been identified. “The kinds of provocation leading to attacks on people and riots, and those who unleashed such incidents have been identified. They’ve been identified,” he said. He was addressing an event marking the Community Policing Day 2021 at Rajarbagh Police Lines in the capital on Saturday. Narrating the importance of community policing, he said, "We’ve been able to tackle the recent violence with the help of people. We’ve been able to unearth the mystery of the incident. That’s why our community needs to be more vigilant, to help the police,” he said. Read: A series of rehabilitation steps taken for victims of communal violence He also said it is not possible to provide security in each house to maintain law and order. “But if people remain vigilant, if they give information to the police at the right time, we can give them security,” the minister added. Inspector General of Police (IGP) Benazir Ahmed said although community policing is a new concept in Bangladesh, it is an old practice in many Asian countries. "This practice is also quite common in Singapore. When racial violence broke out in the USA, they successfully introduced community policing,” the IGP said. Read: Communal violence: Citizens demand exemplary punishment for perpetrators “Cybercrimes have increased alarmingly. It is a big threat to the security of the country and people. We’ve to prepare for that,” he added. Earlier, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, IGP Benazir Ahmed, eminent academic and writer Zafar Iqbal, and DMP Commissioner Mohammad Shafiqul Islam inaugurated the Community Policing Day 2021 by cutting a cake and releasing balloons.

Iqbal Hossain and three others accused in an alleged case of desecration of Quran at a temporary Puja site in Cumilla's Nanuwar Dighir Par have been remanded for a further five days, allowing police to further quiz them. Cumilla Senior Judicial Magistrate Farhana Sultana granted the remand Friday afternoon after police applied for a seven-day remand in the case of hurting religious sentiments. Mohammad Rezwan, police super of Cumilla Criminal Investigation Department (CID), confirmed the development to UNB. Iqbal and three others – Ekram, who called 999 after the incident, and Daroga Bari shrine caretakers Humayun Kabir and Faisal – need to be questioned further as they have started disclosing facts, Rezwan said. The previous seven-day remand ended Friday. Police handed over the Quran desecration case against Iqbal Hossain and three others to the CID on October 24. Read: Quran desecration case against Iqbal, 3 others transferred to CID The instruction came from the Police Headquarters, Rezwan said. "Also, the law enforcers took Iqbal to the Daroga Bari Mazar Mosque pond at night. At 11pm the divers found the mace which went missing from Nanuar Dighi puja site in Cumilla city," Parimal Das, inspector of Cumilla Detective Branch of Police, said. In footage of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, Iqbal could be seen taking the Quran from a local mosque and entering a Durga Puja site. He is later seen walking away with a mace, taken from an idol of Lord Hanuman.

Reiterating his mother and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s commitment to provide security for Hindus in Bangladesh, Sajeeb Wazed Joy has called for strong punishment for the perpetrators of the recent bout of communal violence in the country. Calling the attacks on Hindu temples since October 13 as the most “deplorable in the country’s history”, Joy used his social media account to counter the "conspirators" who staged the drama of desecrating the Holy Quran at a Durga Puja venue in Cumilla. Terming the alliance between Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat–e-Islami as the “evil ghosts of Pakistan in Bangladesh”, Joy held those radical parties responsible for the attacks on temples in as many as 12 districts across the country that left seven people dead. He said those parties have a long track record for “playing the religion card” in the country’s politics. “A vested quarter was pushing the country into the pit of darkness by misrepresenting Islam and instilling intolerance among people. BNP and Jamaat have always played their religion card, turning Muslims against non-Muslims and creating apprehension among people. This time it was no exception.” Sharing a video of the violence, Joy dubbed the “recent spate of attacks as a deep rooted conspiracy against the country”. Read: A series of rehabilitation steps taken for victims of communal violence Only within 300 meters from the mandap is the residence of Cumilla City Mayor Monirul Haque Sakku, who has been nominated from BNP, the narration on the video added. Elaborating on BNP’s role following the violence, he alleged that “this party is constantly blaming the government for the recent religious violence.” "But, while people, in general, are coming to the street to protest against the communal clashes, BNP has not launched any protest. Rather, they are desperately trying to save the main culprit Iqbal who placed the Quran on the lap of a Hindu idol at the dead of the night." On the involvement of the activists and leaders of Nurul Haq Nur's party behind the attack on temple in Chttogram, the video mentioned “Police arrested, by observing the CCTV footage, 10 people on charge of attacking the mandap at JM Sen Hall in Chittagong. Among them, nine are the leaders and activists of different wings of the political party founded by Nurul Haque Nur, who has already played a vital role in the anti-government propaganda. “In the past, BNP and Jamaat activists took to the street with the banner of Nur’s party and clashed with police only to foil the celebration of the 50th birth anniversary of Bangladesh. Centring that issue, Hefajat activists tried to create instability in the country”, the video narration read. Reminding the inclusion of secularism as one of the founding pillars of Bangladesh by his grandfather, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Joy said, “Banganahdu established secularism as one of the pillars of the constitution. Bangabandhu initiated a culture of communal harmony in Bangladesh.” Read: Communal violence: Citizens demand exemplary punishment for perpetrators Joy referred to the rise of “Pakistan backed political parties and government in his country following the assassination of Banganahdu, along with most members of his family on August 15, 1975. In the video Joy said “Following his( Bangabandhu’s) assassination, military rulers virtually ripped that constitution apart. That darkest period witnessed the rise of the Pro-Pakistan political party and the government. The spirit of the Liberation War was fading away.” The secularism principle was removed from the Bangladesh constitution in 1977 by then president Gen Ziaur Rahman and replaced with a statement of 'absolute trust and faith in Almighty Allah'. Islam was declared the State religion in 1988. In 2010, under Sheikh Hasina at the helm of the government, the Bangladesh Supreme Court restored secularism to the constitution, he mentioned.

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.