Dhaka: Police in Cumilla said they have identified the man, Iqbal Hossain, who had kept the holy Quran at the puja mandap in Cumilla that triggered a series of communal violence in various parts of the country, leaving several people dead and scores injured; local media reports.
The accused is a thirty-five-year-old Iqbal Hossain, son of Nur Ahmed Alam, who is from the Suzanagar area of Cumilla city. The incident sparked the mass genocide of the minority Hindu population.
Cumilla superintendent of police (SP) Faruk Ahmed said police identified Iqbal Hossain by examining the CCTV footage.
He told Prothom Alo on Wednesday evening the several units of the police have made this dramatic progress in the investigation. The manhunt is underway to arrest Iqbal Hossain, he added.
A copy of the Quran was allegedly seen at a makeshift puja mandap set up on the north bank of Nanua Dighirpar on the occasion of Durga Puja on 13 October. After that, a group of people attacked the mandap and vandalized it indiscriminately on allegations of desecration of the Quran.
On the same day, police fired shots to disperse a group of people who gathered to attack the Hindus in Chandpur’s Hajiganj, leaving four people dead.
The next day, two people were killed after Hindu temples, puja mandaps, businesses were attacked and vandalized in Noakhali’s Begumganj.
Hindu homes were torched, vandalized, and looted in Pirganj in Rangpur on Sunday. Temples and puja mandaps also came under attack in various places of the country.
