A Brahmanbaria court on Thursday sentenced 13 people, including a former union parishad chairman, to four years in prison in a case filed over the torching of a Hindu temple as an act of communal violence in Nasirnagar upazila of the district around five years back.
Brahmanbaria Chief Judicial Magistrate Mohammad Masud Parvez also fined them Tk2,000 each, Didarul Alam, inspector of the court, said.
The convicts – 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 Nasirnagar.
Eight of them were present in the court when the judgment was delivered.
According to the case statement, miscreants vandalized and torched establishments including a temple belonging to the Hindu community in some areas of the upazila after spreading rumours about 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.
Eight cases were filed over the violence that would ensue.
The police later pressed charges against 13 people.
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 justice has been established through the verdict.