"Time has come to leave your homes immediately," that's the message 20 Hindu families received as a threat in anonymous letters, in Satkhira Sadar, Tuesday afternoon.
“You have been living here for a long time. Not anymore. Whether you have to sell your domain or just abandon, the time has come for you to leave it immediately,” the letters said.
Some of the receipients were lawyers.
Satkhira is known to be a stronghold of the Jamaat-e-Islami and is listed as one of the “vulnerable” areas of the country where specialised forces are currently cracking down.
The families are living in fear after these hand-written letters were delivered to their homes, located adjacent to Judge Court in Palashpole in town, via post.
“This time you have been told nicely. But the next time there will not be any niceities.”
The letters were posted from Manobadhikar Sangha Satkhira (a local human-rights association by translation), according to what could be read from the envelopes.
The ones who received the letters were Rabin Sarker, Kamalesh Ghosh, Advocates Raghunath Mondal, Tapan Kundu, Tapan Das, Arpan Sarkar, and Kanti Lal Sarker, Swapan Sana, Proshenjit Chakrabarty, Sanatan Shil, Bappa Dey, Tapan Swarnakar, Samir Karmakar, Dulal Sarker, Sharbindu Mondal, Chitralekha Basu, Sona, Bimal Mondal, Mangal Sarkar and others.
Satkhira Sadar police station Officer-in-Charge Enamul Haque said no one filed a written complaint in this regard. “But, we are looking into the matter.”
The Hindu minority community came under attack immediately after the elections held on January 5, what was condemned by national and international quarters.