Islamist activists shout anti-India slogans during a demonstration in Dhaka on June 10, 2022, to protest against defamatory remarks against Prophet Muhammad by Indian politician Nupur Sharma. Bangladesh government deployed additional security forces in the central Faridpur district following Hindu mob lynching of two Muslims. (Photo: AFP)
Authorities have beefed up security in a central Bangladesh district amid rising sectarian tensions after Hindu villagers lynched two Muslim siblings more than a week ago.
Extra security forces, including the paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh unit, were drafted in on April 24 to deter further violence, following clashes between police and angry Muslim protesters on April 23 that left at least 15 people injured.
The protest was in response to the April 18 lynching of two Muslim brothers whom the Hindu villagers had accused of setting fire to a local temple. Both men had been doing maintenance work at a government-run school next to the temple.
Violence flared when police fired rubber bullets in a bid to disperse the crowd that had been blocking the Faridpur-Khulna highway for hours.
Despite the deployment of extra security forces, the situation could quickly get out of hand after Friday prayers on April 26, as has happened on numerous occasions elsewhere amid similar sectarian tensions.
"Tensions are running high, and the word is out that Muslims will gather after Friday prayers," said Nittya Kumar Sarker, secretary of the Nowapara Union Council, a local government body.
The murdered brothers were from Nowapara village.
Sarkar is also the acting secretary of the adjacent Dumain Union Council, where the lynching took place.
"Security forces are patrolling the streets, and the situation is under control now," said Miraj Hossain, the officer-in-charge of the Madhukhali police station.
The radical Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh has thrown its weight behind local Muslims and condemned the police's use of rubber bullets against them.
"Certain parties are trying to destabilize the situation," said Quamrul Ahsan Talukder, the deputy police commissioner in Faridpur, adding that people were looking to hold more protests over the lynching.
Quamrul said on April 25 that, "Border Guard Bangladesh will patrol the area until the situation completely calms down."
The BGB had earlier issued a statement announcing that four platoons were assisting a joint force of different police units in maintaining law and order in Faridpur.
Three cases have been filed over the lynching, the temple fire, and the Muslim demonstration.
Police have so far arrested 12 Hindus in connection with the lynching and are looking for the Domain Union Council chairman, Shah Asaduzzaman, as investigators believe he led the Hindu mob that carried out the murders.
The day after the incident, Asaduzzaman told UCA News that the temple fire had made Hindu villagers angry but denied being among the mob that beat the brothers to death.
Bangladesh, where Muslims make up over 90 percent of the nearly 170 million population, is no stranger to sectarian violence.
Local rights group Ain O Shalish Kenda reported 21 incidents of attacks on minorities, mostly Hindus, between January and March this year, which left 28 people injured.
In 2023, the same rights group reported attacks on 108 homes and 29 business centers belonging to the Hindu community in 22 incidents, which left one person dead and 81 injured.
