Bangladesh: In a shocking incident in the early hours of Saturday, 31st May, a Hindu temple was brutally vandalised and set ablaze by Islamists in the Salimpur Union of Sitakunda Upazila, located in Bangladesh’s Chittagong district. The attack took place around 3 am when miscreants laid siege to the ‘Sarbajanin Sri Sri Mahasamshan Kali Mandir’ — a semi-pucca structure dedicated to Goddess Kali. According to reports, the extremists desecrated the temple by smashing the idol of Goddess Kali and vandalising pictures of other Hindu deities. After the act of sacrilege, the attackers set the temple on fire, reducing it to ashes. In a further act of encroachment, they constructed a makeshift boundary wall on the site, allegedly to take control of the land.
When the temple authorities discovered the destruction the next morning, they promptly informed the police. A formal complaint was lodged by Amar Majumder, the president of the temple committee, on Sunday, 1st June. However, the local police appeared reluctant to acknowledge the religious nature of the attack. Sitakunda Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Mohammed Mojibur Rahman downplayed the hate crime, stating, “The temple was constructed on government land. I am of the view that the incident occurred due to a land dispute with the owner of a nearby land.”
The temple authorities and local Hindu community members have rejected this claim, maintaining that the incident was a clear case of communal violence and religious intolerance. This attack comes barely days after another communal incident in Bangladesh. On 22nd May, a Muslim mob launched arson attacks on Hindu homes in Dahar Mashihati village in Abhaynagar Upazila of Jessore district. The incident was part of a pattern of systematic targeting of religious minorities in the country.
Activists and Hindu rights groups have raised concerns over the growing impunity with which such attacks are carried out, often under the pretext of land disputes. They have called on Bangladeshi authorities to take strict action against the perpetrators and ensure the safety and religious freedom of the Hindu minority community. The desecration and destruction of the Sarbajanin Kali Mandir highlight the urgent need for stronger protections for religious minorities and accountability for those who incite and execute such hate-fuelled attacks.
