A temple was torched by some unidentified miscreants in the early hours of yesterday
Inhabitants of Shalmara village under Aditmari upazila in Lalmonirhat have been living in panic as a temple was torched by some unidentified miscreants in the early hours of yesterday.
The gang set fire to the Shalmara Sarbojanin Puja Mandir after spreading petrol over it when the villagers were sleeping, police said after visiting the temple in the morning.
Sensing the fire, locals rushed to the spot, but then the temple was burnt to ashes.
Expressing concern at the attack on the temple, President of the temple managing committee Profulla Chandra Roy said Shalmara temple was a sacred place for the villagers and they had been doing veneration there for the last 20 years.
Valuables worth about Tk2lakh were damaged in the fire, he added.
Member of Valabari union parishad Subhas Chandra Roy said unidentified miscreants torched the temple to create panic among the Hindu people.
A panicked situation has been prevailing in the locality as people of Hindu community are fearing that they might be attacked further.
Chairman of Aditmari upazila, also Senior Vice-President of district Awami League, Sirazul Haque said the miscreants tried to create panic among local people so that they would not dare to cast vote in the national polls scheduled to be held on January 5.
Officer-in-Charge of Aditmari police station Aslam Iqbal said they were trying hard to identify the miscreants’ gang who were involved with the torching of Shalmara temple. No one has been arrested in this connection yet.
On December 15, a temple of the Hindu minority was attacked in Patgram upazila allegedly by the Jamaat-e-Islami activists after three Shibir men died in the area.
A gang of unidentified miscreants set fire to a temple of Durgaat Kakinain under Kaliganj upazila in the district on October 30.