Hindu residents of Digholia village in Lohagra upazila of Narail are still haunted by the fear and memories of the communal attacks in the area two weeks ago.
Since the attacks on July 15, sparked by a Facebook post that allegedly insulted the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), members of the Hindu community have been standing guard outside their homes with help from the Hindu communities of neighbouring villages. A tense atmosphere prevails over the village almost constantly.
The Saha brothers, Hemlet Saha and Subrata Saha Shuvo, on Sunday told this reporter about life in the village after the attacks.
“For the last two weeks, since the day of the attacks, my father Sunil Saha, president of the village committee, has been crying and crying,” one of the brothers said.
Hemlet Saha told the Dhaka Tribune: “Around 16-17-year-old boys were calling my 65-year-old father's name. There were about 300-400 people. They kept hurling abusive words at my father. They told us that we were staying in their country. They said we must have had a lot of courage to insult their prophet and other such things.”
Before the family could understand what was happening, hundreds of people stormed the area with homemade weapons. Around 10-12 people broke into each house and started ransacking them.
“They were saying to give them our money or they would burn down our house. They burned a house completely. They entered all the houses and vandalized and looted them,” he added.
Dhaka Tribune“Our father is a respectable man, so he wanted to sit with the gathering Muslims to decide if someone from our community had committed a crime and to punish him if he did. But the attackers did not wait or even try to hold any discussions. Our house was the first one they attacked and they attacked all the other houses within the next 30 minutes,” Helmet further said.
Subrata Saha said several Hindu families had fled the area as they were unable to bear the constant threat of attacks or arson.
“We didn't even have time to think about our belongings during the incident. First of all, I tried to take my mother and sisters to a safe place. The Hindu community of the neighboring village sheltered us. For the next few days, our young men and women could not return home for fear. Only the elders stayed at home,” he added.
He further said Narail MP Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, the Union Parishad chairman and some Awami League leaders tried to protect their community, but the attackers looted and fled the area before they could arrive with additional law enforcement officials. “The 10 policemen in the area could not alone protect our homes and businesses from hundreds of attackers.”
Hemlet said: “My brother is the managing director of a reputed company in the country. He arranged employment for young boys of many Muslim families in this village. We live together in this village, there was no question of violence in the past, but this attack has made us lose all confidence.”
He asked why they should live in fear when they were also citizens of Bangladesh.
