The only makeshift police camp built at the Nomo Para of Charkawa village under Barisal sadar upazila was shifted yesterday, causing unease as Hindu residents returned to their torched homes.
Following the murder of a Muslim college student, a mob attacked and torched houses of the Hindu community on November 15.
At least 15 houses and two temples were fully gutted while seven others were partly damaged in the incident. Two cases were filed in this connection.
Later, five out of 13 accused in the murder and 23 out of 1,600 unnamed accused in the arson case were arrested.
The police camp was shifted to Barisal Irrigation Project at Char Aicha, about half a kilometre away from the village.
Babul Das, one of the victims of the arson attacks, said the affected people were reconstructing their torched homes and had started returning to the village. In this state, shifting the police camp as well as reducing the number of manpower in the camp, have left them in a helpless and unsafe state.
Bubul Das, Krishna Das, Kalyan Adhikari, Narayan Mistri, Indra Sarkar, and Dhiren Shikder, yesterday visited the Barisal Metropolitan Police commissioner as representatives of the minorities of the village.
Quoting the commissioner, they said the investigation was still ongoing.
The administration had earlier assured them of establishing a permanent police camp in the minority populated Nomo Para of Charkawa to ensure their security.
Moreover, such movement has intensified panic among the locals turning them hostile against the victims as police filed cases against more than 1,600 unnamed for the arson attack, they claimed.
Officer-in-Charge Rezaul Islam of Barisal Bandar Police said the police camp had been shifted to a more structured spot due to an accommodation crisis.
He said a team of seven under an assistant sub-inspector would remain deployed at the camp, which had consisted 20 policemen as per order of higher authority.
Md Shamsuddin, BMP commissioner, said the police camp was not shut down, but transferred with a fewer number of policemen.
The place where the camp had been shifted was not far away, and police patrol in the area would be intensified to assure safety of the minorities, the commissioner told.