A team of eminent personalities visiting the Char Kawa area in Barisal sadar upazila yesterday made calls for a fair probe into the recent arson attacks on the local Hindu community and immediate steps to help the rehabilitation of the victims.
The eight-member team included Workers Party Polite Bureau member Bimal Biswas, Joint Convener of Samprodayikata O Jongibad Birodhi Mancha Ziauddin Tariq Ali, Bangladesh College and University Teacher’s Association President Dr Noor Mohahammad Talukder, journalist Salim Samad, writer Sardar Amin, Dhaka University teacher Robaet Ferdous, filmmaker Rashed Rhine, and Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti member Dipayon Khisa.
The November 14 murder of college student Parvez Gazi over disputes surrounding a game prompted retaliatory arson attacks the following morning on the local Hindu community of Nomo Para in Char Kawa union, which saw at least 16 houses and two temples burnt down and seven more houses damaged.
After meeting the relatives of Parvez, the team also visited the local minority community and talked to the victims of the arson attacks. The visiting team later held a press conference at Barisal Reporters Unity and exchanged views with local civil society members at the BNDN auditorium in the afternoon.
The team also placed an eight-point recommendation, which included exemplary punishment for the killers of Parvez; compensation and rehabilitation for the arson attack victims; a free and fair investigation to find out the real cause, masterminds, leaders, and executors of the arson attacks; the role and the cause of failure by the police and administration to prevent the attacks; and a stop to the harassment of innocent people.
The team also called for immediate steps to restore peaceful communal coexistence and harmony.
The team members said the locals and the victims blamed the police, the administration and the ruling party for failing to prevent the arson attacks. The locals also claimed that both the murder and arson attack were pre-planned by a quarter trying to fulfill vested interests.
The team also said the deployment of insufficient law enforcers in the area, the delay in lodging a case and accusing more than 1,600 unnamed people to create panic and expand bribery options, and the hastened submission of administrative probe committee report may all be mentioned as “suspicious.”
