After PM Modi's visit violence spreads in Bangladesh, attacks on Hindu temples, train

Hundreds of members of a hard-line Islamist group attacked Hindu temples and a train in eastern Bangladesh on Sunday, police and a local journalist said, as violence spread across the country in the wake of a visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

At least 10 protesters were killed in clashes with police during demonstrations organised by Islamist groups against the Indian leader’s visit, and violence raged on after his departure as anger swelled over the deaths.

Modi arrived in Dhaka on Friday to mark the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh’s nationhood, and he left on Saturday after gifting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina some 1.2 million Covid-19 vaccine shots.

The Islamist groups accuse Modi of discriminating against minority Muslims in Hindu-majority India and violence escalated rapidly during his



visit.

On Sunday, activists with the Hefazat-e-Islam group attacked a train in the eastern district of Brahmanbaria, resulting in ten people being injured.

“They attacked the train and damaged its engine room and almost all the coaches,” one police official told Reuters, declining to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Several Hindu temples in the town were also attacked, he said.

Islamist activists allegedly also set alight two buses in the western district of Rajshahi on Sunday, while hundreds of protesters clashed with police in Narayanganj, pelting them with stones, police said.

Protesters used timber and sandbags to block roads, as police retaliated with rubber bullets and tear gas, leaving dozens injured in Narayanganj, just outside the capital, Dhaka.