Stories cooked-up to embarrass govt: Momen

PBC News:  Foreign Minister Dr. A. K. Abdul Momen said on Thursday that a few enthusiastic media and individuals are spreading cooked-up stories of deaths and rapes on religious minorities basically to embarrass the Sheikh Hasina government that is committed to religious harmony.

“Till to-date only 6 people have died during recent religious violence. Among the dead, 4 are Muslims and they were killed by police when they tried to torch Hindu housing and 2 Hindus died, one a normal death and another by drowning. None was raped and not a single Mandir was torched or destroyed,” the Foreign Minister said in a statement on Thursday.

He said a couple of dieties or Goddesses were vandalized. All perpetrators have been arrested and now they are under police custody. A dozen and a half poor houses that were burned down have been rebuilt and everyone got compensation.

“In recent years, there has been a proliferation of Puja Mandaps in every place including individual houses as the government pays money for every Puja Mandap and there is shortage of police forces to monitor all of them 24/7 days a week,” he added.

“To avoid such incidents of abuse, the Puja Mandap organizers should not leave their Mandaps unattended. It may be mentioned that reportedly a drug-addict person left a copy of the Holy Quran near the foot of a diety when there was no worshippers or organizers at the Puja Mandap and another person took a photo of it and put it up in the social media, Facebook, that sparked outrage leading to vandalism and ransack,” it reads.