Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb spoke to Indian High Commissioner in Bangladesh, Vikram K. Doraiswami, and discussed the Durga Puja related violence in the neighbouring country, sources said here on Friday.
Sources said that the Chief Minister has inquired about the violent incidents in connection with the Durga Puja festivities in Bangladesh.
“Doraiswami informed Deb that the situation is under control now. He and other Indian officials in various diplomatic missions in Bangladesh have visited different places to know the details of the incidents at the ground level.
“The situation is being closely monitored and the Bangladeshi authorities are fully cooperating to deal with it,” the sources told IANS, referring to the telephonic conversation between Doraiswami and Deb.
As per media reports, the mob violence erupted in Comilla in Bangladesh along Tripura after unconfirmed posts went viral on social media about the alleged desecration of the Quran at a Durga Puja venue, following which Hindu temples were vandalised.
A total of 16 persons have been detained in Chandpur and Chittagong in connection with the cases filed over the attacks on Durga Puja pandals and clashes between the police and the mob in Chandpur’s Hajiganj upazila on Wednesday night that left four persons dead.
Incidents of violence, according to media reports, were also reported from Hajiganj, Chandpur, Noakhali, Cox’s Bazaar, Chattogram, Chapainawabganj, Pabna, Moulvibazara and Kurigram.
People familiar with the matter said that fundamentalists were behind the violence in Durga Puja pandals in Bangladesh and such incidents were perpetrated with the intention to embarrass Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League-led government.
The local administration has imposed Section 144 in the Hajiganj Bazar area after an attack on police personnel.
Sheikh Hasina has promised strong action against those involved in provoking communal disturbances by spreading fake photos of the Quran being placed at the feet of a Hindu deity at a Comilla temple during Durga Puja.
Former Tripura Governor and West Bengal BJP leader Tathagata Roy tweeted: “Hindu awakening in West Bengal and elsewhere has prompted Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina to announce stringent steps to Hindu-baiters of Comilla and elsewhere. Whatever her faults, she is the best hope of Hindus in Bangladesh.”
Bengal opposition leader and BJP legislator Suvendu Adhikari urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar “to take up this painful and shameful issue with the Bangladeshi authorities diplomatically and support the Sanatani Bengalis in these time of distress”.
