Hill Voice, 14 October 2021, Bandarban: The Lama of Bandarban district has turned into a battlefield with allegations of “demeaning the Holy Quran” in Comilla. On Thursday (October 14th) morning, Muslims gathered at Lama Bazaar under the banner of the Lama Tawhidi Muslim community of all walks of life. After this rally, the central Hari temple of Lama upazila was made repeated attacks. More than fifty people including police were injured in this attack.

According to local sources, hundreds of Muslims gathered at Lama Bazaar in the morning to protest against the “demeaning the Holy Quran”. The meeting was attended by General Secretary of Lama Upazila Awami League, Mayor of Lama Municipality Zahirul Islam and General Secretary of Upazila Chatra League Md. Shaheen and leaders of Olama League, among others.

General Secretary of Lama Upazila Awami League, Mayor of Lama Municipality addressed the protest meeting of the Muslim worshipers under the banner of Muslim Tawhidi people of all walks of life in Lama.

At the end of the protest rally, more than a hundred Muslims gathered and vandalized the main gate of the central Durga Puja festival at Lama Bazar and threw brickbats and vandalized the central Hari Mandir in Lama Upazila.

During this time, the police put up resistance and at one stage fired blank shots to bring the situation under control. At that time, the Muslims attacked the police. The officer-in-charge of Lama police station was seriously injured. When many people including Muslims were injured in the clashes, the injured were admitted to the Upazila Health Complex.

Later, at least 40 business establishments and 6 houses of the Hindu community in the market were vandalized and looted.

Sub-Inspector of Lama Police Station Md. Jumma Mollah said 30 policemen, a platoon of BGB and two platoons of army personnel have been deployed in Lama Bazar to keep the situation calm in the face of any situation.

It is also learnt that the situation in the upazila has been tense since the incident. No one is going out of the house for the sake of security. There is the most panic among the local Hindu community. For their own safety, they tried to contact the senior leaders of the district and sought the cooperation of the administration.

As a result of this first communal clash, the incident has affected puja mandaps in 7 upazilas of Bandarban district.

Prashanta Bhattacharya, chairman of the Lama Hari Temple Committee, said, “There is no point in protesting that we have been attacked and vandalized. We will seek justice from the God.”