It has been more than 24 hours since 62-year old Harendra Nath Roy, caretaker of the Parapukur Shamshan Mandir in Patgram village of the Lalmonirhat district, has not said a word. Instead, he has been crying incessantly since Monday night.
Nobody knows what happened to him. The only thing they know is that he was kept confined to his house inside the temple from 9pm-11pm on Monday night, allegedly by a group of 20-25 Jamaat-Shibir men.
Local residents said the confinement of Harendra was just a continuation of the two previous rounds of assault by Jamaat-Shibir men on the local Hindus on October 27 and January 4.
The elderly caretaker of the temple is one among very few Hindu adults who remain in the area, as most had already fled their homes after the attacks and threats escalated, especially in the few days before the January 5 elections.
Many of those who are still in the area go to the houses of their Muslim acquaintances to stay for the night. They only come back home during the daytime. Of the hundreds of HIndu families living in the area, many have sent their women and children to stay with their relatives in neighbouring villages.
Even if they gather the courage to come back to their homes during daytime, no one from the community dares to tread anywhere near the Shafinagar village market. The market has been under the control of BNP-Jamaat men following a clash with Awami League activists on the eve of the election, when two BNP men were killed.
Shefali Rani Sen, 38, a resident of the Hindu-dominated Senpara area has been living in one of her relatives’ house in a neighbouring village with her two teenage sons since Sunday’s polls. Her husband fled their home after the polls, fearing attack by Jamaat-Shibir men.
“No Hindu was involved with the clash that took place on January 4, but it is always us [the Hindus] who the Jamaat-Shibir men target,” Shefali said.
Local Union Parishad Member Anil Chandra Sen said he had also vacated his home since the polls, and that he had already informed the police about their predicament.
Amiruzzaman, OC of the Patgram police station, said the joint forces had been patrolling the villages prior to the polls to resist terror by Jamaat-Shibir and BNP men. Additional police remain stationed in the area, especially during night. “The local Hindus panic because they do not see the patrolling law enforcers because of the dense fog.”
Gaibandha
On Monday night, BNP-Jamaat men allegedly vandalised and torched the house of a Hindu family as well as five shops owned by Hindus in the Beradanga Bazaar area of Gaibandha. The attack left a Hindu man seriously injured.
Two men, including BNP leader and local UP Chairman Rafiqul Islam Sarker Tara, were injured in the clash that ensued after local Awami League men counterattacked.
Admitted to separate hospitals in the district, their conditions were stated to be critical.
Sources said the opposition men attacked the houses of Noni Gopal Karmakar and Naresh Karmakar around 7pm on Monday because they went to cast votes in Sunday’s elections; defying threats.
Yesterday morning, leaders and activists of the local unit Awami League, and its youth front Jubo league, made a counterattack against the BNP-Jamaat men, leaving the UP chairman injured.
The entire locality has been gripped by panic since the skirmishes, as the local BNP-Jamaat men brought out a procession protesting the counterattack by the ruling party men.
