2 Cases filed over clash in Dhaka’s Patuatuli area
Staff Correspondent 15 October, 2024, 00:36
Two cases were filed on Monday over a clash that erupted after a procession of Hindu devotees was reportedly attacked on Sunday night on the way to Sadarghat for idol immersion.
Confirming the matter, Kotwali police station officer-in-charge Md Anamul Hassan said that police and the authority of Nur Market filed two separate cases on charges of police assault and vandalism against unidentified persons.
The devotees alleged that unidentified individuals attacked their procession, hurling brick chips at them from the Nur Market building, the OC said, adding that police went to the spot and assured them of investigating the matter.
‘But the devotees did not listen to the police and tried to break the market gate. I was injured when I was trying to calm down the members of the Hindu community people,’ OC Anamul said.
Later, army personnel intervened and charged batons on the agitated crowd to restore order, Anamul told New Age.
The clash occurred when the devotees were on their way to immerse a Durga idol from a temple at Shankhari Bazaar in Dhaka’s Old Town area.
Shankhari Bazaar Puja Udjapon Committee priest Shukumar told New Age that some people attacked a crowd of devotees on their way to immerse a Durga idol.
‘The attack was not acceptable as it was the concluding day of Durga Puja, the biggest religious festival for us,’ he said, adding that the police and army intervened to disperse the devotees when they tried to protest at the attack.
At least 15 people were injured in the clash.
Police and army personnel used clubs to disperse the quarrelling people in the Patuatuli area of the capital on Sunday night, according to police and hospital sources.
