Kushtia Police Superintendent Abdus Salam visited Uttapbhabanipur on Friday and Saturday and held talks with the section of local people led by some Imams of mosques.

The fundamentalists held rallies in the area on Friday and Saturday demanding that Kadianis be declared non-Muslims.

Thirty members of six Kadiani families had fled homes following persecution by fundamentalists led by the Imams and madrassah students.

"Two families returned home on Saturday and the rest will return today", Md Abdur Rahman, a leader of the Kadiani community told this correspondent in Kushtia town yesterday.

There are 14 Kadiani families in the village, who were virtually confined at homes in inhuman conditions.

The fundamentalists in the village threatened to kill all Kadianis "if they are not converted to Islam", he said.

Many Kadianis have been forced to sign bonds, promising that they would embrace Islam, he said.

Rahman said Kadianis there are socially boycotted by a section of fundamentalists led by one Abdur Razzak, an Imam of a local mosque as per a decision taken on Friday at a meeting held at Dhrampur bazaar.

The meeting was presided over by Dhrampur union BNP president, he claimed.

People of the area have also been told to sever all connection with Kadianis. A section of local BNP men are supporting the fundamentalists, he said.