Challenged girl also not spared

Despite repeated pleas from her family to spare her, religious zealots had assaulted a 14-year-old hearing and speech-impaired girl while rampaging through Hindu homes and temples in Brahmanbaria's Nasirnagar last week.

The attackers slapped Moushumi Sutradhar, verbally abused her and took away her gold earrings, leaving her in shock, said her father Falan Sutradhar, a carpenter. The family lives in Kashipara area in Nasirnagar.

Many of the attackers, aged between 14 and 25, also verbally insulted other Hindu girl and women, and snatched their gold earrings and nose rings in Kashipara and nearby Ghoshpara that day, locals told this correspondent while he was visiting the areas.

“My daughter, who can neither speak nor talk, had got Tk 5,000 as an allowance from the government three months ago. I had bought her the pair of earrings after adding another Tk 6,000 to that,” Falan told The Daily Star.

“My son Kinkor Sutradhar even begged the attackers to spare her [Moushumi] but they did not,” said the father.

After snatching the girl's earrings, the zealots also took away Tk 5,000 from Kinkor.

“My daughter is so traumatised that she hardly comes out of her room these days,” Falan added.

On November 2, the local Upazila Nirbahi Officer prepared a list of victims of the attack in Brahmanbaria on October 30. The list referred Moushumi by her father's name -- Falan Sutradhar -- and as a “physically challenged girl”.

Sajala Ghosh, who lives in Ghoshpara, said a boy aged around nine to 10 came to her house on the day of the attack. The boy abused her when she begged him not to enter in, she said.

Subrata Chowdhury, who owns a poultry farm, told this correspondent that the attackers not only looted valuables from his house in the same area but also slapped and threatened to kill his two and a half year son as the child started to cry.

Armed with sticks and sharp weapons, religious zealots vandalised and looted at least 17 temples and over a hundred Hindu homes and business establishments in Nasirnagar and Haripur unions of Nasirnagar upazila on October 30.

The attack was carried out over a Facebook post from the account of Rasraj Das, 27. Rasraj is in jail now in a case filed over the post.

Tensions had been brewing in the area since Saturday, as two Islamist groups -- Touhidi Janata and Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat -- called two protest rallies for October 30 over the Facebook post “hurting religious sentiment of the Muslims”.

Some locals blamed the protesters for the attack, which the rally organisers refuted. They blamed some “criminals” from nearby Nurpur village for the incident.