New Age | Madrassah student jailed for vandalism of temples in Rajshahi

A madrasa student was arrested and sent to jail on Friday for allegedly vandalising temples in Bagha upazila in Rajshahi.

The arrested man is Rabbi Hossain, 18, son of Jamsed Ali of Kaligram Miapara village under Bagha upazila and a student of a local Qawmi madrasa, police said.

Abu Siddique, the officer in charge of Bagha police station, said villagers caught Rabbi red-handed on Friday morning while he was damaging a statue at the Kaligram Pundaripara temple under Pakuria Union.

“During the first interrogation, the rabbi confessed that he had destroyed three temples out of anger over several Facebook posts about the ongoing flash floods in Bangladesh caused by the opening of several dams by India,” he added.

The police official said that Rabbi was sent to jail by a court on Friday afternoon. Kaligram Pundaripara Temple President Arun Sarkar had filed a case against him, accusing him of vandalism of the temple.

Suzit Kumar Panday, chairman of Bagha Upazila Puja Udjapon Committee, said, “After the Fazr prayer, the Rabbi first broke the locks and destroyed various implements in the temples of Palpara and Ghospara. When the Rabbi started destroying an idol in the temple of Pundaripara, he was caught red-handed by locals.”