The police have arrested three more suspects for their alleged involvement in the attack on and looting of houses of the minority Hindu community at Noagaon under Sulla upazila in Sunamganj.
The Sunamganj police said that with the latest arrests, they had so far held 33 people, including Dirai Sarmangal union council member Shahidul Islam Swadhin, the prime suspect.
Sunamganj additional superintendent of police Shaheb Ali Pathan said that they had sought court’s permission to take all the arrestees in custody for various periods for interrogation.
The district police superintendent, Mizanur Rahman, said that they were also investigating the role of Jhuman Das Apan who had allegedly written Facebook posts insulting Hefazat-e-Islam joint secretary general Mamunul Haque.
Although local community leaders handed Jhuman over to the police after the Facebook post had surfaced, several hundred people from three villages on March 17 morning carried out a fierce attack on the minority Hindu community at Noagaon, damaging several dozens of houses.
Hours before the attack, Sulla police officials said that Jhuman was arrested and sent to jail on a court order under Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The attack was allegedly led by Shahidul Islam Swadhin, reportedly a leader of the local Juba League, the youth front of the ruling Awami League.
SP Mizanur told reporters that Jhuman was involved in the politics of opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party but the investigators would not consider any one’s political identity while probing the attack.
He said that the investigation into two cases would be completed at the earliest.
Jhuman’s brother Pathar Das Nupur, however, claimed that his brother was not involved in politics anymore and he had remained busy with farming in recent days.
He claimed that Jhuman’s phone was hacked before the incident.
Sulla upazila Chhatra Dal unit convener Tarek Hasan told the media that Jhuman had been involved in their politics but he cut all connection with the Chhatra Dal through an announcement on social media two years ago.
The Sunamganj police superintendent said that scientific evidences would determine who and how the Facebook profile was used and fuelled the incident.
The police have set up two camps in the village to avoid further trouble.
Sulla upazila nirbahi officer Md Al Muktadir Hossain said that they on Friday prepared a list of affected houses and temples and started distributing relief to affected villagers and cash ranging Tk 3,000 to Tk 5,000 for repairing the infrastructures.
He said that they had so far identified 90 houses and seven temples that had been affected in the attack.
‘Apart from the repairing, we are now planning to build new houses for the affected people,’ he added.
