Zealots attacks again on Ahmadiyya in Bangladesh

Dhaka, Bangladesh - Islamist bigots in Bangladesh once again attacked the members of the Ahmadiyya community, a minority religious sect, in the country's northern Jamalpur district on Friday night.

The sect leaders in Dhaka said none was however injured in the attack, but the attackers damaged furniture, valuables and property, and forced-out the Ahmadiyya men from their homesteads.

The sect members are panicked now with the latest attack at the village in Sharishabari of district. The bigots perpetrated as many as 20 attacks on the minority sect in a year.

A group of miscreants attacked the Ahmadiyyas at about midnight when they gathered at the house of their local Emir at Baushi Ijarapara, outskirts of Sharishabari Bazar, to watch the live TV broadcast of International Ahmadiyya convention from London.

The bigots, allegedly led by Ismail Master and Ishaq, damaged some Ahmadiyya houses. Police rushed to the spot and dispersed the attackers with charging batons.

"A GD was filed mentioning the names of six people as local police refused to register any case," said Tauhidul Islam, the central publication secretary of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, Bangladesh, told Asian News International.

Last week, the bigots prevented the minority sect from constructing a mosque in Uttara, an outskirt of capital Dhaka. The junior minister for home affairs, Lutfuzzaman Babar, had assured of security for the sect members at a meeting at that time.

Earlier in 2004, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance government of Khaleda Zia banned all publications of the Ahmadiyya in the country. Later a court order in December last year stated the government ban. (ANI)