Monday, March 4, 2013

Bangladesh riots evokes fear among West Bengal border villagers

South Dinajpur (West Bengal), Mar. 3 (ANI): Villagers in West Bengal’s South Dinajpur District have expressed fears about cross-border violence, after riots struck neighbouring Bangladesh.

Haripukru Village is one such village where these fears are being aired frequently.

"A civil war has started in their country. Violence can strike our village during night-time. We are very afraid of this. We are constantly worrying about this. We arte reading newspapers, watching news on television sets to know what is happening there," said Nipendera Nath Mandal, a local.

Muslim residents said they were relying on the Border Security Force personnel to protect them in case of any skirmishes. However, they claimed that the cross-border violence had not hit the village yet.
"There are reports about violence in Bangladesh. Mosques and temples are being ruined. We are till present unaffected by these riots. But if anything occurs here, we will inform our border security personnel," Ravi Islam, another local.

A Bangladeshi Islamist party leader, Delwar Hossain Sayedee, was sentenced to death on Thursday over abuses carried out during the country''s independence war, triggering riots that killed at least 30 people.

Sayedee, 73, vice-president of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was found guilty by the Bangladesh War Crimes Tribunal of mass killing, rape, arson, looting and forcing minority Hindus to convert to Islam during the 1971 war of separation from Pakistan, lawyers and tribunal officials said.

After he was convicted and sentenced, police clashed with activists from Sayedee''s party and violence raged in more than a dozen areas around the country, police, witnesses and media reports said.
At least three policemen were among the dead and around 300 were wounded, they added.

Protesters, who said the verdict was politically motivated, set fire to a Hindu temple and several houses in southern Noakhali region, reporters said. In the southeastern region of Cox''s Bazar, they attacked a police camp, killing one.

Two policemen were killed when Islamists stormed a police station at Sundarganj in northern Gaibandha district, police said. "We have been virtually besieged. It''s a horrible situation," station officer Manzur Rahman told Reuters.

Members of the religious party - known simply as Jamaat - called for a national strike on Sunday and Monday, raising fears of more violence. Sayedee was the third senior party member convicted by the tribunal. (ANI)

Girl student forced to drink alcohol, raped in Arunachal

Itanagar: A girl student of Class VI was allegedly raped by a constable of the Indian Reserve Battalion after he forced her to drink alcohol at Longding district of Arunachal Pradesh, official sources said on Monday.

The student of a government higher secondary school, who was raped on March 2 recovered consciousness yesterday at the community health centre where she was taken to after being found lying beside the Circuit House, the sources said. The victim has been sent for medical examination.

The IRB constable, Lukbom Yonggam, was arrested on Sunday after locals caught him, they said.
The locals gheraoed the police station demanding punishment for the constable. The police fired in the air after a mob assaulted the constable last evening when he was being taken to the community health centre for medical examination, the sources said.

Army doctors treated the constable at the police station due to security reasons, they said. Local MLA Thangwang Wangham said that the culprit should be dealt with an iron hand and asked the people not to aggravate the situation and let the law take its own course.

PTI