Pro-Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami men arrested for Bangladesh violence

Suspected operatives of pro-Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami and an Imam were among several people arrested by Bangladesh's law enforcement agencies in cases linked to vandalising Durga puja pandals and temples and attacks on Hindus recently.

The suspects from Jamaat were identified as Mamun Mondal and Omar Faruk, according to people in Dhaka. Mamun had spent time in Malaysia and has been part of Jamaat since student days. Jamaat has in the past targeted Indian interests with backing from Pakistan and has links with terror groups. It is a proscribed outfit in Bangladesh.

Police have also arrested a leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in connection with an attack on a puja venue in Noakhali. A law enforcement officer told ET that security agencies were continuing with the crackdown across districts.


Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had said on Sunday that 'vested interests were trying to create communal divide and disrupt democratic process in the country', although she did not name Pakistan. Certain quarters with vested interests are disseminating propaganda aimed at creating a communal divide, she said while tele-inaugurating the Payra Bridge in southern Bangladesh from Dhaka.