A Brahmanbaria court yesterday accepted the charge sheet against 228 accused, including several Awami League and BNP leaders, in a case filed in connection with attacking a Hindu temple in Nasirnagar over 13 months ago.

Court Inspector Mahbubur Rahman submitted the charge sheet to the Senior Judicial Magistrate's Court.

He said the court would issue arrest warrants for the accused in the next hearing of the case.

Abu Zafor, officer-in-charge of Nasirnagar Police Station, submitted the charge sheet to Mahbubur on Sunday afternoon.

The charges were pressed in the case filed by Nirmal Chowdhury, general secretary of Gaur Mandir, a temple vandalised on October 30 last year. Over 1,000 unnamed persons were accused in the case.

Some of the accused named in the charge sheet include AL leader and former UP chairman Abul Hashem, sacked UP chairman Dewan Atikur Rahman Ankhi, former joint secretary of Nasirnagar upazila AL Sheikh Abdul Ahad, local AL leaders Faruq Mia and Suruj Ali, BNP leaders Abdul Hannan, Jamal Mia, Amirul Hossain Chakdar, Nasirnagar upazila complex mosque imam Mukhlesur Rahman and president of a religious organisation Zakir Hossain.

On October 30 last year, around 200 religious bigots attacked at least 15 temples in Nasirnagar upazila town and vandalised seven to eight idols.

They also vandalised and looted about 100 Hindu houses in several localities of Nasirnagar town over a Facebook post purportedly from the account of one Rasraj Das. The attackers also beat up over 100 people of the minority community.

Six more Hindu houses were set afire in the upazila a few days later, followed by an attack on the houses of Nasirnagar Upazila Parishad Vice-Chairman Anjan Deb and a Hindu fisherman.

The attacks were made claiming that the post "hurt the religious sentiment" of the Muslims.

Rasraj is from Haripur union, about 13km from the place of the attack. Before his arrest and the mayhem, Rasraj claimed he had nothing to do with the post.

Eight cases were filed in connection with those attacks, accusing some 2,000 people.

So far, 124 suspects, including prime suspect sacked UP chairman Ankhi, have been arrested in the cases and produced before the court for trial. Now all of them are on bail.